


What Have They Done To You

by Leroidatboi



Series: What Have They Done To You [1]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Aboslute Savagery, Bleeding, Body Horror, Bunny Burrow, Clawing, Cops, Cursing! ALL THE FUCKING TIME!, Destruction, Don't worry, F/M, Gang Violence, Horror, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Mistakes, People get shot, Psychological Horror, Surgery, Trains, ZPD - Freeform, bad movie tropes, crazy doctor, gettin shot, never tagged before
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-12 19:02:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 30,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9085813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leroidatboi/pseuds/Leroidatboi
Summary: Nick and Judy are caught in a short but deadly shootout in a parking lot in Savannah Central.  Both Nick and Judy are gravely injured and are brought to Savannah Central hospital to be treated.  While Judy recovers from her wounds Nick is stolen from the hospital and experimented on by a mad Doctor.  When Nick is found again, he may never be the same.  Will Judy be able to grasp her fox back from the brink?CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTENInspiration from picturesLet's go together.http://neytirix.deviantart.com/art/Let-s-go-together-Zootopia-Fan-comic-609482536What have they done to you...http://neytirix.deviantart.com/art/What-have-they-done-to-you-Zootopia-Fanart-642986916





	1. The Day The Music Died

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad to say that I'll be able to work through this story again as, I'll be honest, there are several chapters that are not to the quality that I have come to expect in my writing. It is because of this that I'm coming back through from the first to the last to ensure that there are no continuity errors and to smooth everything out.
> 
> Again, thank you for your patience. You can still find Neytirix and her work at https://neytirix.deviantart.com/

 

Judy leaned back against the wall behind her.  Little runlets of blood trickling from her countless wounds, most superficial, but injured nonetheless; their normal patrol had been cut short with the sounds of screaming mammals and a smattering of intermittent gunshots. Nick had told her to stop and had called for backup immediately, she had thought ‘ **_better_ ** ’, charging headlong into the fray with her concern firmly seated on the civilians in danger- that had been her first mistake and second mistake. That didn’t really matter now, the gang was littered on the hard asphalt of the parking lot while both herself and the fox lay slumped against the equally passive brick facade of the cheap dollar-store.

Chuckling lightly Judy looked over to Nick. “Sure got em didn’t we?”

When her pained jest received no reply, a shaky paw reached over to his shoulder; using what little strength she could muster to bring him down to face her. The sight of her partner’s broken body shocked the heat from her soul and scorched her nerves. He had been torn up; one of his ears had been shot through, his left paw had been completely mangled and he had clearly taken lion’s share of rounds by the final tally; his body armor had protected him valiantly, but it too rested on him gently like a torn cloth stuck on a branch.  A massive pool of sanguine fluid pooled below his slowly cooling figure; when she leaned in to check for breathing and a pulse, she felt hot blood dripping from his maw when she pulled further. In a standstill moment, she heard it, a single thump- weak and pained with the barest hint of a rasped breath before the process repeated. Her sigh of relief flooded in and then back out when she felt and heard both of his lifesigns slowing. Completely unable to say anything, much less voice the pain that crushed her very soul; “ _ If I hadn’t been so brash…” _ she sobbed, throat still caught with both emotional and physical pain. 

* * *

**_Phone Call - Unknown_ **

       “Doctor Hopperson?” the voice asked smoothly.

“Yes” he replied in a sullen, downed voice

       “We think we potentially might have a job you would be interested in” the garbled voice continued, “we can talk some of the important aspects together now, but I think you might be  **_very_ ** interested”

The hare leaned back in his chair, what could he have to lose? “You’ve got my interest, what’s the job?” his ears bobbed briefly as he retrieved a pen and paper from his desk drawer and began to jot down notes, “You can’t be serious, what’ve you done? Read though my writing?” he asked incredulously, still somewhat unsure of this ominous voice on the other end of the call.

       “We haven’t read anything of yours Doctor, we just know people… we hear things” the voice paused for a second before continuing. “We think you might be the perfect mammal for the job, we’re prepared to offer you five million dollars”

The rabbit’s shocked expression must have somehow bled through the call as the voice continued, “We can give you a fifth up front, deposited directly into your bank account in ten payments and will provide for you everything you will need to perform the task” the voice went garbled for a second, almost as if there was another mammal too close, “ **_D_ ** _ o Y _ **_ou A_ ** _ cc _ **_ept?_ ** _ ” _

“Y-yes!” he stuttered, still shocked that they had come to him and that his services were clearly worth so much.

       “Very good doctor, you’ll receive a package containing the information you’ll need. We can, and will, take care of everything else”

As if to punctuate how serious the voice was, his phone buzzed with a notification from his bank and a thick manilla envelope passed through his letterbox. He quickly padded over to it, heart racing in anticipation. “One-One-Five, Seyton Drive” he read out to himself, quickly prying the clip open to view it’s contents.

* * *

**_Savannah Central Hospital - Days later_ **

The injured lapine officer awoke with a start, her breath hitching into high gear to match the last thing she could remember.  **_Fear_ ** . As the world came back into view, her glittering eyes raced down the tiled ceiling and over to her own bed; after taking in everything she thought of, she looked over to her side- a large bouquet of flowers and get-well cards littering the nearby table. Beyond that, the room-dominating Buffalo sitting carefully in one of the room’s myriad seats; a grim expression locked to his visage.

“Nick!” she shouted, “What happened to Nick!” the fear she had felt started to lick at her proverbial heels to match her racing imagination, “Please Chief, tell me” she begged.

       “Nick is no longer here at the hospital” the buffalo paused for a strangled moment, “I cannot divulge much more to you at this time… we’ve got an active investigation ongoing” his pleading expression sent shards of ice through her heart, “I need you to understand Hopps… when this all blows over we might be able to talk this over better”

Judy’s world tilted, side to side, spinning away from her as her emotions took the wheel; throwing her entire world back into blackness. The would-be dreamless sleep would have been a kind moment for her to be free of everything, but it wasn’t, her crushing guilt at what had happened threatened to overflow at every moment. That once peaceful dream filled in red and ran rivers of blood lined with russet fur and punctuated with none but the loudest gunshots. 

When she awoke, it was again to the oppressive feeling of being watched. She drove her gaze to the side where she found the Chief; standing this time, papers once more in grasp.  “Hopps” he greeted.

Judy felt numb all over, too much had happened, not enough had been done. “ _ They’re still keeping things from me!” _ she reminded herself, hopeful that the Chief might have some light to shed onto the situation. “Chief” she cautiously answered.

       “I have some good news… and some bad news” answered the towering buffalo with a hushed tone.

“T-the bad news first” she shakily prompted, attempting to steel herself for what would come next.

       “You’re being formally suspended for six months for the reckless endangerment of a fellow officer that lead to life threatening injury, for the gross negligence of both your own safety- those present at the scene” the buffalo’s pained expression sharpened as his voice grew in strength, “and for your  **_partner_ ** ” the news hit her harder than the couple of bullets she had taken to the vest and arm during the shootout, a whoosh of a once pent-up breath rushed from her body as she attempted to take in the news.

Bogo could see that she was in no shape to be asking too many more questions, “You’ll be receiving half-pay until your suspension is up… but you’re going to get an IA investigation soon, I really don’t know how far they’ll go, but I’d make sure to dot my I’s and cross my T’s if I were you Hopps” his friendly demeanor was clearly emplaced for her sake, the hard and uncaring rock that was the chief could be felt under his words; he was furious. The moment he left, a strangled sob tore from her throat quickly followed by streaming tears.

* * *

**_Five Weeks Later - 115 Seyton Drive_ **

Dr. Hopperson had been a stellar surgeon, top in his field with only a pawful of individuals coming even close to his skills; or at least there were, right up until he lost his job to those “ **_pragmatic_ ** ” bastards. The hare huffed to himself, pulling the hair on his scalp taut in frustration. “They have  **_no_ ** idea what they’ve done!” he yelled to himself in the nearly empty room, “They don’t understand what is really at stake here!” he continued, slinging more of his lab notes to the floor in his rage; pausing when his eyes clipped down to a small pamphlet of documents with a couple ominous stamps on them. The lapine lifted them, drawing them into his grasp to paw through their contents; his manic grin widening with each flip of page. “Yes!” he cried, “This’ll teach them to fire me!”

He’d been fired from his position as Head Surgeon because of some ‘ _ speciest comments’ _ or so they had claimed, there was nothing wrong, he didn’t hate anyone or attempt to vilify any species on the lines of creatures. Nothing that wasn’t true that is, he’d quite actively supported Bellwether’s bid for mayoral candidacy; even going so far as to be part of the initial testing of the savage predators. They had claimed that his ideas of using predators as test subjects for experimental treatments was ‘ _ Backwards and Crude’ _ they’d even fired him without much of a severance package; the whole debacle had basically left him unemployable and without much hope beyond an honest miracle, he gazed down to the several-weeks stabilized fox laid out on the ancient exam table. “You’re going to be my ticket back” his bloodshot eyes shook with mania as he took the manilla folder and his lab coat before walking into the clean room.

“Patient X15, Officer Nicholas P. Wilde, Reported to have sustained massive injuries during a shootout,  **_also_ ** reported missing from Savannah Central Hospital five weeks ago. Injuries include.” he took a moment to step over to the table, reading off both his provided documents and from what he could obviously see on his patient.

“Twenty low caliber gunshot wounds to the torso, nearly all ribs are shattered, upper left paw is completely mangled and the other seems to be damaged as well” the rabbit moved on to the other injuries- seeing that they were slowly starting to heal on their own over the extended period of stay, “He’s also sustained severe injuries to the tendons and bones within both legs that lead to his feet, I cannot currently judge” he paused, setting the recorder down on the slab next to his patient, “His ears are fine, sans the right on as it’s clearly been torn by another gunshot, but the officer’s  **_benefactor_ ** has supplied me with replacements for these as well as a full-spinal implant” he shook his head, “Even though I’m a doctor who specializes in surgery, I unfortunately cannot tell whether the spinal implant is truly necessary, but it has been both requested and already passed on to me… and so it will be done” the rabbit pulled his gloves tighter as he pulled the covering to the side to expose both of his arms and mangled paws before he placed his documents down beside the work area.

“recommended medical procedures” he read aloud, “Aural implants, spinal implants, quadruple amputation of all paws and implants to replace them” he paused, clearly grimacing through the next part, “It’s also recommended that his lower jaw is replaced with another implant and to retrofit a final implant to even out and protect the upper half” the papers were then tossed back to the table behind him, “I’ve also been given several injection-based treatments to administer to the subject during various stages of the procedure to help his body take to the augments instead of against.” Dr. Hopperson reached for his scalpel and began to cut into the fox’s hide, while he could almost certainly vouch for the fox’s survival through the process, he could feel his own survival instincts shifting uneasily. He had to work quickly and carefully.

* * *

**_Six Months Later - 115 Seyton Drive, All Saints Veterinary Care_ **

The mad Doctor looked around his lab, it was almost completely covered in the dried blood from the fox, who, had flatlined not once- twice- but three times, was still stable for the fourteenth consecutive day. James was now certain that the fox had been saved, his long since severed or removed pieces had been put on ice and had been collected by the officer’s  **_benefactor_ ** .

Hopperson almost felt the need to commend himself, he’d inadvertently started with the easiest part; the ears, they had come off and been replaced quite easy with only a couple additional hours of stress as he connected the implants to their indicated nerves. He’d already have expected the spinal implant to have been the hardest, but even it didn’t really compare to the rib cage, the fox had somehow nearly come to during the final stages of rib-reconstruction and replacement. He laid his throbbing head into his paws as he recollected the insanity driven hours of slicing, stitching and saving. Two of the three flatlines had occurred during the initial and final parts of the open-chest surgery and the final one had been just after the new spine had been implanted.

James stood to make a couple final last-minute checks to the fox’s muzzle, using a long strip of metal plate to pry open the now literal “snap-trap” of a maw to check that the suture lines were healing properly. He’d marveled at how fast the injections had assisted in the procedures, silently wondering just how they might affect a healthy mammal.

While the ribs had been the hardest, the maw the most delicate, his spine the most taxing, he most enjoyed the work on the paws. He spent hours marveling at the constructs, crafted artfully out of what must have been the least number of moving parts he’d even seen in such an implant, even in the design stages. He’d even tested them lightly in his imminent interest before he finally administered them to the patient; he was even more surprised at the sheer strength and sharpness of the devices as he stitched them in, capping each one with another of the strange colored injections.

By his investigation, the foot-paws must have been easily twice or three times as intricate as the upper ones; even so, both contained enough small moving parts to mimic true natural movement in an eerily perfect manner, though the similarities between them and the natural thing were lost there. The metal counterparts had long and sharp claws rather than digits, the upper ones appearing like fingers that stretched  **_just_ ** a little too far before coming into a razor’s edge and the lower ones were about the right size and thickness but were  **_only_ ** blades with little other imagined practical use but to cut or dig into surfaces.

He shuffled back to his desk,  _ ‘Surely I can get my job back now’  _ thought the manic rabbit.  

His mind raced quickly through his options on what to do next, his phone contact had ceased completely only a week or so ago and hadn’t given him any special requests beyond what had already been asked. Taking the shred of liberty on how to get Nick back to his fellows at the ZPD, preferably before the fox could wake up, James snagged his phone and dialed the most important number he could think of besides his own.

       “Hello this is the ZPD, Clawhouser speaking, how may I help you?”

“Hi, I am a doctor” he kicked himself, feeling stupid for even starting with that immediately after he finished speaking, there was no way this buffoon could understand his masterpiece.

       “U-uh interesting, is there anything I can help you with… Dr.?”

“James Hopperson, I’m surprised you don’t know about me? I’m one of the best surgeons that ever lived within the city!” he offered back into the phone

       “Do you need assistance, or is this some kind of prank call?” Clawhouser’s voice took a hard edge as he questioned the ‘doctor’ on the other end.

“I personally  **have** Officer Wilde here at  **_my_ ** workplace. If you could please come pick him up, I would be most gracious. My address is 115 Seyton drive, in Savannah Central. I fear he might become responsive soon, please hurry” he couldn’t stress enough, “ I’m not sure if I’ll need to restrain him!”

Clawhouser had already forwarded the call to his boss in his office, alerting him to the already unbelievable situation being discussed over the phone; his caution at the possibility of another false lead lost to the sound of thundering footsteps and racing officers.

Bogo tore off past the front desk, a stampede of officers in tow. “Fangmeyer, Rhinowitz, Trunkaby, and Leone get the fuck in your squad cars now.  Wolford in mine. GO NOW, the address is already posted to your GPS’s get the fuck out there!” even though he had only named a couple of their rank, the remainder of the other officers bolted at the chance to retrieve their lost brother-in-blue.

 


	2. This'll Be The Day That I Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another thanks for Neytrix. Their pictures are still very, very inspirational.
> 
> Find it here: http://neytirix.deviantart.com/art/What-have-they-done-to-you-Zootopia-Fanart-642986916

  

Bogo sprinted through the inner bay doors to the ZPD garage, tailed by as many of the other available officers as possible. They’d just received their first real lead into finding their missing officer, some had thought he’d have died and others were just starting to give up hope; this single emergency call was everything they needed to kick back into action, and they sure as hell weren’t going to let it slip through their grasp.

Big wheels screamed on asphalt when the fleet of cruisers bolted up the ramp and onto the road, their sirens dulling the sounds of everyday life into an afterthought on their blazing path towards Savannah Central, at the front, Bogo gritted his teeth as he led the charge. The announcement call for all available officers to report to the indicated address had come through the nominal channel, he knew that Officer Hopps had to have heard the report, but hoped from deep in his heart that she wouldn’t follow them. In all likelihood Officer Wilde would be long gone by now and whoever had called in the tip was would be either have lied or would be surely traumatized by whatever scene they came across. Even though Bogo came across less emotional than a slurry of concrete, he truly didn’t want the fox’s partner to see what had become of her him. The bovine attempted to convince himself that Wilde wouldn’t have wanted her to see him this way, a recurring theme being just how little they really had to go off of; everything had been so perfect, leaving both nothing to chance and nothing to find.

When the fleet of cop-filled cruisers skidded to stops, effectively blocking the entire road with a concave facing the facility’s run down exterior, officers of all sizes and types flooded out into reflexive positions behind their vehicles as they awaited further instruction from their venerable Chief. “Wolford, Fangmeyer, Snarlov and Higgins” called out the bovine, “Come with me, we’re going in” his grim expression bled into his few chosen fellows, each standing stock-still behind him as they prepared to make entry into the structure. Breaking in the weary woodwork proved to be a novice task as the large mammals surged into the first hallway; it’s prior use coming to light from the horrid stench flooding out to the walk.

Even though the few prey officers’ noses were barely a quarter as attentive as those of their predatory counterparts, the smell of blood and death was far **_too_ ** apparent; easily incapacitating the wolf in the middle of the formation as his olfactory senses were overloaded; causing him to lean to a wall, lightheaded. Even with their comrade being taken out of order so easily, the far more hardened officers forged into the building with little regard for the miasma of death hanging so heavily in the office’s interior; intent on the opportunity for justice and closure for their fallen comrade.

A few quick and deft movements brought them over the counters and beyond the waiting room and into the rear of the facility where the stench had definitely doubled in strength; bringing a far wearier expression to the grim expressions they donned, each tensing further as the sounds of another mammal lead them to a small zone at the facility’s rear that had maintained use even though the building had clearly been out of commission. Upon reaching the double swing-doors heading into the intensive surgery wing, Bogo felt confident enough that the voice belonged to a small-class mammal of some type. Bogo and the three others that had managed to fight their way through the house to the doubled metal doors stacked up at them, preparing themselves to break into the room and appraise the situation. The cape buffalo counted down from three as they readied to bust through.

“You have the right to remain silent,” he slammed out, “anything you say can and will be held against you!” his voice maintained a steady bass beat through their entrance into the room, maintaining perfect eye contact with the short individual leaning over a small-sized table the chief as they broke through the door. The mammal in question, stopped his leaning and started to pace around the furthest side of a cloth covered table at the room’s rear, clearly a slab of some sort; the figure occasionally muttered into his hand-held recorder as if unable to see or hear the officers that just snapped into the room.

       “Phase six, patient has started becoming marginally responsive… the body hasn’t rejected any of the transplants and the serums appear to have worked wonders. I will be removing unnecessary life support right now, crossing fingers, here’s to hoping!” Bogo’s eyes widened at the mammal’s complete lack of regard for the other occupants of the room,  
Standby for further analysis of patient.” he rambled the doctor, drawing a notebook up from his waist pocket to jot down notes as he moved back to his desk from the cloth covered table. His movement allowed the officers to catch the barest glimpse of russet fur of the previously missing fox’s visage and slight flashes of grey from the top of his head. Bogo’s large and pensive eyes traced away from the figure, following the trail of several cables and tubes as they were lost in the litter around the room.

“Sir, I need you to step back from the tablet.” commanded Chief Bogo, lowering his gun from the rabbit as he attempted to make heads-or-tails of the situation.

As if realizing that there were others in the room for the first time, squealing in delight, he tore the blood sheet off of Wilde’s body; revealing the remainder of the fox that had been covered, neck down. “I’ve fixed him!” he proclaimed the mad lapine, “Those morons couldn’t have done an iota of the work **_I’ve_ ** done!” he continued, bloodshot eyes furthering to follow through on his crazed appearance.

The few officers that had entered the room several steps back after the sheet had been withdrawn, underneath it was obviously the fox; but so much was wrong. His barely parted maw gleamed with murderous light, a couple stitch marks being the only evidence beyond that of tampering. The few visible teeth shone like daggers in the dark, with his metallic ears standing at proper attention in an incredibly uncomfortable manner. Bogo then looked downwards to his paws; each one partaking in that same defiant sheen in the dim work-light, their long talon esque claws looking fit for a nightmare.

“Are you the one that called in the tip for where officer Wilde was?” Cautioned Bogo, no longer sure of the situation.

       “That I am… I needed to return him, and to show you all just how much of a medical genius I truly am!” beamed the rabbit

Bogo nearly began re-reading the rabbit his rights, angrily reaching down for his radio to call in the dead body and **_horror_ ** of a doctor when he was cut off by a rasping voice that grated against his nerves with an unwavering and metallic rasp to permeate the very air.

“ **W-what have y-you done to me?”** it croaked, voice sounding harsh and unused

       “I’ve made you better; faster, stronger, tougher, everything better.” the rabbit spoke, turning to face the body of the officer in lieu of the others.

“ **You tore me apart!** ” the voice yelled, anger seething through its every word

Bogo looked around the room to find the source of the voice, coming up empty, he looked back to Wilde’s body and noticed that there were extra cords that weren’t attached to any of the medical devices, rather, it was attached to what looked to be a small laptop with multiple audio functions on. Bogo then turned around the room again, looking for something different entirely; he quickly managed to see the cameras and audio equipment that absolutely littered the room, likely the cause of the wiring mess. Bogo nearly assumed that the voice eliminated from the speakers until the lapine doctor reached over to disconnect the wires, resulting in a harsh moment of static and a jitter from the fox before it stilled for a moment.

With the hints of a single tear, the first in many years, beginning to spawn in the corner of his eye, Bogo turned to the fox on the slab. “Wilde, are you alive? What has he done to you?”

The rabbit, not caring in the slightest that his paws were caked in a firm layer of dried blood, reached out and began to unbuckle Nick’s body from the table, careful to ensure that the fox wasn’t unjustly jolted.

       “Bogo, was it?” Began Jameson “What do you plan on doing right now? I can guarantee that Wilde has survived… he seemed, at least prior to the surgeries, a strong and healthy fox. I have reason to believe that he will make a full recovery, but he will need **time** to recover”

“You listen here you little piece of shit” began Bogo, his tirade only beginning, in his fury he failed to notice one key thing- Wilde’s paw was slowly moving. Jane noticed it though, her sharp eyes watched carefully as it clenched inwards at the mention of the doctor’s name and his work. Her striped muzzle contorted in fear as his blades curled inwards before starting to reach back out; immediately feeling awash in her own fear.

Jane had been the only mammal in the room to witness Nick’s initial movement. She started to mumble in her fit of unrestrained fear, stumbling through her words doing her damndest to get the attention of the rest of the mammals around her striped form. Surely they had seen it, they must have. She backpedaled away from the slab, keeping her weapon trained in front of her; where it belonged, on the unnatural fox at the tainted room’s heart.

The chief was quick to take notice of the change in his officers. “What’s going on Jane, did you see something?”

If she intended on replying, it was too quickly cut off by a slightly less raspy voice; instead it sounded much more hollow, as if playing through an old pair of speakers and clearly came from the fox on the table. Bogo could see his maw moving with his words, but even though the maw moved, it seemed to lag behind the words by a small margin.

“ **What have you done to me** ” the voice clicked a couple times during the statement, clearing up each time; almost sounding like a living individual now.

       “I know you can't remember, but are you **_really_** sure you want me to tell you everything?” the doctor's lopsided question almost turned the fox's query on it's head as he attempted to understand what what actually occuring.

Tears streamed down the fox’s face, their trail flashing black as the blood ran down the edges of his face “ **Please tell me** **_why_ ** ” demanded the fox, his muzzle making a slight grating noise for a moment as his metalized muzzle creaked fully open, slamming shut as he realized more of what happened. “ **Please tell me why you’ve done this to** **_me_ ** ” Nick was bawling, crying openly as his sanity showed its jagged cracks.

       “To prove that I’m the best doctor in the world, not to mention the fact that I’ve saved your life… You should be grateful!” he yelled

“ **You selfish bitch! You think that I’m grateful you did this!** ” yelled Nick as he slid off the slab; steel claws crashing into the concrete as he tried and nearly failed to stand on unfamiliar paws.

Doctor Jameson took a quick hop forward to steady his patient as he attempted to become more accustomed to the new parts; watching with rapt attention as the fox stared in a state of shock at his paws, eyes tracing the gleaming edge from the fur on his forearm all the way to the tips of his claws. That was **_his_ ** first mistake, the doctor never should have gotten so close to him after what he did… especially after fittin him with those blades the benefactor thought enough to call ‘ **_paws_ ** ’. The instant his drug-slowed mind caught up to his newfound situation, Nick’s body acted on primal instinct, heightened by a thirst for revenge that had burned in his blood from the first injection of serum to the last action that crazed freak ever partook in. With the golden opportunity glowing before his eyes, Nick’s body decided for him; his eyes blinking red in rage as his once inanimate machining snapping into action as a strong paw gripped the lapine’s smaller shoulder to hold him while the other plunged into his unprotected flesh.

“Aahhhhh!” screamed Jameson as the claws entered through his front, slowly exiting through his back with a wet ‘schlick’; a red stain already forming on his back, pooling below him on the floor.

Nick was then quick to hurl his muzzle down into the neck of the doctor, digging his new teeth through flesh and deep into bone before tearing his claws completely through a side of his body; severing a massive chunk to hang open, showing his internals to the other officers as the fox’s mouth opened and slammed shut in a crunching motion.

Only moments later, Nick’s maw clenched before opening; the doctor’s dead corpse falling to the cold tile before the fox’s death-trap of a maw released the remainder of the shoulder he had latched onto, sending a hunk the bloody flesh to the ground with a wet slap. Nick looked to his bloody paws in fright, eyes returned to their original green hue, spinning viciously to face the others; sending drops of blood everywhere as he sank to his knees in the pool of death. “ **P-please help me…** ” he begged, pleadingly as he collapsed; curling into a protective ball in his fear, shudders continuing over random intervals.

Bogo drew his radio up to his face, covering his nose with a hoof for a moment to still himself, “Get Wilde to a hospital… and get a body bag... or four” started Bogo, when the others didn’t immediately react he fumed, “I Said do it the fuck now!” even the officers outside could hear his demanding order.

It took little over fifteen minutes to get an ambulance to the site with another three en route to the scene with additional gear as the chief got himself and Lt. Fangmeyer into as well. Cautious to avoid the newly sharpened spots on the fox as they lifted his body from the ancient gurney and onto the newer one that had been brought by the first responders. One of the medical technicians, a bobcat, attempted to pry the fox’s fetal-positioned body open so he could get a better look at all of the blood and myriad wounds peppered throughout his body. The EMT met massive resistance before his paw jolted to the side as the ambulance hit an unnaturally large bump, sending an inch of his paw on and then sliced open by one of the fox’s claws.

“F-uck!” he yelled, sitting down on a fold-out chair with a second EMT helping to quench the flow and seal the would.

Bogo held his horns in hoof as he tried to rationalize the situation, finding it far more difficult that he could hope to remedy.

* * *

**_Several Hours Later - [Redacted] Hospital_ **

 

The bovine Chief sighed, leaning into the glass window, “What could you possibly mean by ‘you have no idea’” asked Bogo, the day’s stress taking a heavy toll.

       “I mean, I’m not _sure_ how he could possibly be alive, whoever did this to him chopped his body to pieces and stitched him back together with, **_quite literally_ ** , the most advanced prosthetics I’ve ever seen in my entire career; they don’t even teach about half the things we’ve seen on or in this fox!” the doctor paced behind the chief, clearly working himself into a frenzy, starting to attempt to determine what exactly he’d seen. “I mean, his paws!” the jaguar slicked his ears back, “They’re fucking **_KNIVES!_ ** ” he stopped pacing, stepping directly up to the bull, “We even found heaps of chemical cocktails swirling around in his blood! And some of them are chemicals we **_can’t_ ** identify here…” he sighed, coming down from his momentary frenzy, “I-I just don’t know Adrian, we gave him several muscle relaxants and a heap of tranquilizers to keep him down while we examined him only to have him wake up and start screaming in fear!” the Jaguar sat down, pantomiming to the chief his anxiety on the situation at large, “the amount of drugs we gave him should have been enough to put a fox into a medically induced coma for almost two days, he was only out for thirty minutes” the doctor, with shaking paws, drew a cigarette from his pocket and a lighter from another, trying desperately to light the smoke.

“I’m sorry, I understand this has been incredibly trying… but will he make it?”

       “At this point, if he made it through all of that… I really don’t think he’s going to die now.”

“What about his partner? Should we let her in to see him?” the doctor asked, starting to get a handle on his frayed nerves.

       “I’m not sure what could be worse… do we let an overprotective bunny see what that beast did to her partner, or do we try to keep it from her?” the bovine turned from the glass to face the doctor, playing his question back through his mind, trying to make sense of this horrible situation.

The doctor breathed out a heavy, smoke-filled sigh, “we can’t keep her from him forever… does she know you found him?” he asked, receiving the affirmative not, “There’s not much you’ll be able to do to keep her at bay, I say that when he becomes stable again; you let her in” he paused to take a heavy drag, “But it’s your choice Chief”

“When will he be ready?”

       “That has nothing to do with being okay” the doctor played him a lopsided and clearly uncomfortable expression.

"But when do you think that might occur?” responded the one ton chief

       “No idea, but I do think you need to get him some help… that fox is bound to be fucking destroyed on the inside” he took another long drag, “I just hope that rabbit is enough to keep him here with us”

Both the Chief and the Doctor looked down to Nick as he laid on the examination table. His grey augments very apparent against his red fur. What were they going to do, what would Nick do once he came to and stayed awake?

“Doc, I need to go and file some paperwork, please, remember. Even when you leave, ensure there are at least two officers stationed at his door. I don’t want anything getting in” after a pause he added grimly” or getting out.” Nick was motionless for a couple hours before the nightmares started. Waking up once more in that room, but instead of the chief it was Judy, instead of that madman, it was Judy. He killed her, tearing into her flesh with a burning passion. His body curled in on itself as he began to sob, after he had been rescued none of the other officers that had come to see him had anything but pity in their eyes. It burned, they looked at him like some broken toy, some kit’s long lost action hero that had been broken, it seared his soul- right to the core.

As the nightmares faded, his mind slowly inched back to the one thing he yearned for most. It was Judy; her touch, her voice, everything about her. Nick had felt feelings for her ever since she came back to apologize to him for her speech that had aggravated Bellwether’s conflict that much more. But now, lying here on the bed, he couldn’t help but drift back to an odd thankfulness towards the doctor for giving him a second chance. He had given his life to protect her, he knew they both wouldn’t have made it out together. As he reminisced those last few minutes raged through his mind.

* * *

**Flashback - The Shootout, Pack Street**

 

Rounds pinged off the cars near them as they took cover in the parking lot. Nick was nursing a wound to his left arm, and Judy was trying to get a radio-in for backup.

“I told ya fluff, we shouldn’t have stopped”

       “The Fuck was I supposed to know this would happen?!”

“Never said it was your fault… just that I saw something bad coming our way” as he set off a few more rounds over the hood.

       “How can you be so smug and confident at a time like this!?”

“Because they haven’t hit you yet” the words tumbled out of his mouth before he had a chance to clamp his muzzle shut.

      “What did you say?” the edge her voice took was frightening, it almost made him want to try his chances with the gang on the other side of the lot.

“Uuuh, nothing?”

      “That’s not what I would call nothing… you’re going to tell me why you just said that, I mean what’s it supposed to mean? It's not good because anyone is getting shot!?”

Nick had called for backup after the first set of rounds had been slung, but he knew they would be too late. Nick realized this before Judy did, and took a moment to snatch something from her tool belt before turning back to the gunmen.

Nick watched and started to reload as Judy took her turn to shoot rounds over the edge of the car. He took his chance, bringing the small orange carrot nearer to his muzzle. “Judy… I love you, I’m so sorry if I don’t get the chance to tell you in person… If this is all you have left, I want you to move on. But for the time being, I promise, that we will survive. We’ll be okay I-” he was cut off as Judy was struck in the arm.

      “Gahhhh, that hurts. GOD FUCKING DAMN” as she clutched her now bleeding arm.

The shootout continued for what felt like an eternity as shots were slung back and forth. Nick knew there couldn’t be that many mammals left on the other side of the lot, the amount of bullets they were firing had diminished immensely from the beginning. Both he and Judy started to back up towards the doors of the liquor store they were backed up against.

“Judy, you should go… I can try to hold them off long enough for you to get out of here.” he almost begged, he couldn’t lose her; not now, not like this.

      “No, Nick I won’t leave you!”

“Why not Judy, I can’t let them hurt you! I wouldn’t be able to live with myself… you’ve done so much for me, and I can never repay that… please, just let me give you this”

       “I said **no** , now get down. They’re still shooting!”

Moments later Judy rose from her crouched position to fire off more rounds, she took her time aiming, so focused that she didn’t notice the small ferret coming around the corner of the car to her right.

But Nick saw it, he saw it just a second too late to get her attention to the diminutive mammal, so he leapt for it, he screamed to Judy as he sailed through the air. She turned just in time to hear the gun go off, closing her eyes in an attempt to not see her final moments.

The sound of the gunshot came, followed by eight more, but not a single one had hit her. It was a miracle she thought. This fool had either just been shot, or had missed every single one; her reverie was short lived as her eyes opened again.

Nick was the reason none of those rounds hit her, he had jumped in between her and the ferret. Taking all of those shots for her; her eyes widened at the sight of his ballistic vest, how many rounds she could see had been taken by it- it clearly wasn’t enough. He stumbled back, bleeding heavily as he attempted to steady himself on the bumper of the nearest car only to have his paws give out, slumping his gasping form down to the ground; blood already pooling beneath him.

“Judy, s’alright, you’ll be fine” before he hacked up some deep crimson blood. “Just leave me, go get to safety… never was there for anyone else, hope this makes up for everything you’ve done for me” before Nick slumped all the way back to the ground, he was laying just adjacent to the brick facade of the store and Judy was beyond furious.

She gently took him by the shoulders, straining painfully as she lifted his torso to a sitting position on the wall, upong taking a single step back she heard him speak once more. “W-what’re you doin’, get t’safety....” he gasped, lolling in incredible pain from broken ribs and plentiful gunshots. But Judy would have none of it, she reached over and took his muzzle in her paw before turning away, back to the three mammals slowly advancing over the parking lot, she just caught a glimpse of the dead body of the ferret; sending her eyes back over her partner one last time, now noticing for the first time the blood dripping away from his right paw as well as the piece of torn clothing stuck in his claws. They weren’t going to die here, if it was the second to last thing she ever did.

In a moment of unrestrained speed, Judy flew out from behind cover and emptied her whole clip out at the three remaining mammals, hearing beautiful sound of screams as two fell to the floor with a slump. unfortunately she’d forgotten about the third, the boar rounded the corner of a large sedan and took aim at the two officers. Nick limply raised his firearm, trying to get a shot off, anything to stop the boar from killing his partner. The moment seemed to drag on forever as his clawed digits squeezed down, sending the round screaming through the barrel towards the ingrate.

The boar had taken the round to the skull and was falling; but they could never be that lucky, the second he hit the ground his gun went off, spraying the area by the two officers with a full clip from his gun. Nick felt a sharp pain in his ear, gasping as he felt warmth run down his head, only to get struck in the jaw. It slung his entire head to the side and completely put him out, the last thing he heard as the world snapped to black was his partner hitting the brick next to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again, another quick update here as this chapter also gets a makeover. I cannot vouch for the same speed carrying on, but I can commit to about one or so (at least) per week going forward. Thank you for continuing on this journey with me, I look forward to continuing onwards soon.


	3. Eight Miles High & Falling Fast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haha! Sneaking in once more to edit my work! Ney's pictures are still great and the writing is only polishing up. Thanks for reading!
> 
> \-- Leroi

****_  
_

**_[REDACTED] Medical -- One Week Later_ **

 

It had been a terribly long week before the hospital staff even considered allowing the desperate lapine to enter into the officer’s ward in the ICU wing. They had flat out told her to expect nothing; he’d been in “Critical Condition” for twenty four hours and been on watch for another seventy two hours; “ _ the audacity!” _ she growled fiercely, they hadn’t even told her that little  **_morsel_ ** of knowledge until now, seven days late! There was so much more she wanted - no -  **_Needed_ ** to hear, what was wrong? Where had he been? Why were they keeping such tight wraps on having found him? There were far too many “what-ifs” that were slowly forcing the lapine to run herself ragged. 

“Officer Hopps?” called out a warm and confident sounding voice, drawing her from thought in a nanosecond.

       “Yes!?” she called out, sprinting up to the desk, heart thundering in her chest.

“Your Chief just sent word down from  **_Blue One_ ** that you can now access the ICU ward” she passed a small slip across the table with a small list of numbers and letters circled.

       “Thanks~” her reply was curt at best, sounding nearly hoarse as the words sank in; barely being caught by the desk assistant as her legs moved on autopilot.

She continued in an even jog through the wide hallways, careful to avoid the other inhabitants of the sterile environment to the ward; nervously shaking as her badge touched the scanner, disengaging the lock and granting her entrance to the specialized ward. Worry crisscrossed her visage, attempting to steel herself, she continued with renewed determination to find the room number. Quickly arriving at the door, she found herself face to knee with two figures she couldn’t have helped but expect, “Chief… Doctor?” regarded both as they obviously barred her entry, not noting that the two looked between themselves as she ancily shifted to find a way around them.

“It’s doctor Roan Michaels” answered the Jaguar, pressing his paws back into the pockets of his coat; his steely and professional expression adding to the sterilized feeling that the hospital’s pale walls provided.

       “C-can I go in?” she flushed, “I mean,” her face soured for a second, “Is he stable enough for me to go into the room? Please?” she reaffirmed her intent, making a small step forward to show her determination.

Bogo looked between his officer and the doctor for a quarter second, “Hopps…” he drew her to a small table beside the door, the doctor lagging momentarily behind before he too pulled a chair to the tableside. “Hopps” Bogo spoke first, “I need you to understand a couple things before we let you through that door…” his tone was deadly serious.

“Your partner suffered extreme injuries during the firefight six months ago…” Judy’s expression turned angry, “I  **_Know_ ** !” she growled in retort. Roan’s expression soured, “During these past several months, your partner has been…  **_poorly_ ** treated by his captors and” he paused, wringing his paws for a second, “he was changed over that time… try to reign in your reactions for the immediate, we’re unsure of his current psychological state.”

What they meant by changed was quickly mired in speculation, she had been there with him in the lot when they were lit up by those gang members. In the moments before they were evacuated from the lot, she had just enough time to look over his nearly dead body. The sight of his ruined body and sheer number of holes punched in had summerally seared into her mind’s eye. She had already come to terms with accepting the fact that he would be handicapped heavily from the situation, that the injuries he suffered would be nothing less than be life-altering if not fatal altogether. Her steeled conscious had brought her the first snippets of strength she would need to prepare herself to stay with him the whole way. What she couldn’t be prepared for was the complete alienation of what she recognised. Upon stepping in, her lungs compressed and summerally failed to fill; leaving her completely stock still within the edge of the doorway.

Judy’s paws unconsciously carried her insensate form through the final inches of the precipice to fulfill her needy vision; his semi-limp body showing through only his upper torso after she traced up along his covering. Her eyes belayed his sleeping form for a couple moments to take in the mystical “changes”. The sight was horrifying and amazing in equal measure, there were bandages across his skull leading back to his ears, along his paws and even around his torso in thick winding lines. She almost choked on her own breath as it slowly returned back to her body, making a double-take at his form at the shimmering sight of gunmetal grey; “ _ out of place” _ her mind told her, as if she needed a second confirmation. She hazily stepped closer to the bed, continuing to trace her visual senses to each of the many sharp points that sprang up along his paws.

       “N-ck…” she breathily whimpered, sadness starting to overtake her

“Hey fluff” the scratchy voice gave her a start harsh enough to nearly send her flying skyward, the fox continued. “I survived… just like I promised”

At that moment, the very second his maw creaked open, her eyes riveted to the sharp points; clearly machined to a razored edge hidden within. They were clearly made with functionality in mind, each one diving forward along a harsh cutting edge to a point before arching back in a saw-like tearing edge. Judy could see as he closed his mouth they fit together perfectly like a zipper.

       “What did they do to you?” she hazarded, unawares of how thin the ice she would soon be treading on would get.

Sighing, Nick turned away from Judy. “I-I’m don’t know” his heart rate monitor was beeping with greater frequency. A single tear rolled from his eye as he tried to continue, failing before snapping his maw shut with a resounding click.

       “W-hat does that mean?” she weakly asked, starting to lean down to rest on an unoccupied edge of his bed.

“My paws” he said, lifting them for her to see; bandages and steel claws, “My ears” the monitor was beeping louder, “Everything!” he burst out, “He fucked me up! He screwed with everything!” he was now openly crying; all but bawling as his emotions started to play out.

       “Can I?” softly asked Judy, reaching out to him with an open grasp

“S-sure” he whimpered, still crying; trying and failing to curl in on himself.

       “Shhh” she consoled, “It’s going to be alright… everything will be okay”

Nothing but whimpers and sniffles came in reply, just more tears and a heart wrenching sobs. Nick’s rampant emotions and injured physical state quickly forced exhaustion into his body, his already weakened constitution failing him with haste partially provided from intravenous sedatives.

Slowly extricating herself from around the now slumbering predator, Judy looked around her surroundings; surprised at the nearly barren state of the room before her eyes found rest on a large sharpie marker, snagging it, she shuffled back to Nick’s bedside. A ghost of a smile cracked her visage as she curled back up into the small nook between his right arm and torso; slowly and carefully doodling onto the bandages. 

Over the next couple of days, Judy came and went, spending nearly all of her free time either at his side or in the room with him. Chief Bogo quickly and quietly filed several sets of paperwork for the requisition of medical leave, impressing through asterix the imperative for psych care for the both of them; further ensuring the length of the medical leave they would partake of. Through a full understanding and long standing relation with them under his employ, he could rely on the fox to be a difficult nut to crack; he’d probably attempt to drag this whole situation to his grave. Judy on the other paw, had suffered through the immediate trauma of having been in and lived through that parking lot shootout, then later when her partner was snatched, and now with Nick coming back like someone’s science project. Everyone was drawn far too thin from this experience, his lengthy career experience further enforced his desire to focus on and worry about Judy, and how she was faring, but all he could muster thoughts for was Nick; the fox was clearly in a state of intense disrepair both physically and mentally, it would surely be a time before he would be back up-to-snuff. It was very, very, amazing; the bare fact that he lived was proof enough that he wouldn’t go down easy, but that left nothing but cursory fear for his psychological state. 

* * *

**_One Week Later_ **

 

The hospital had formally discharged Nick with a bill of “stability”, he was physically stable at the least and showed few to no signs of being mentally unstable, this gave several of the doctors pause at the seemingly sudden discharge; though he was stable enough for his assigned set of physicians to put their faith in his state. Quickly after being discharged, they were ordered to report to the precinct for questioning on the “Situation”. Bogo had desired to get the fox’s full story, through his eyes, using the excuse of having a couple more questions concerning the parking-lot incident to have the rabbit accompany him.

Bogo sat in the first of five interrogation rooms, sighing to himself, hoping that this would be the day to close off all the myriad loose ends and bring this nonsensical case to finish after such a long tale of pain and sorrow. This was a first, in all his time, Bogo had never experienced something of this scale before; two star officers getting caught in a shootout with an unnaturally heavily armed gang and then one was consequently abducted? Never. From such a prestigious hospital  **_and_ ** the police ward? Impossible. The whole situation smelled fishy, only small snippets sounded as though they were believable; and only when told on their lonesome.

It was half past noon when Nick and Judy strolled in through the front doors, calmly walking up to the fluffy cheetah behind the front desk. “Hey Benji… We’re here to see Bogo” Judy barely managed to hold onto her peppy sounding voice, the month had simply been too taxin on her, far too much… everything.

       “He’s in hot-room one” automatically replied the cheetah, pulling his attentions away from his desktop to look down to her, “Woah… N-Nick? Is that you?” started Clawhouser but as his eyes rested on Nick their focuses locked together for the barest hint of a second; revealing small flecks of crimson swimming through the fox’s somewhat perpetually glassy eyes before they snapped back to formal green.

“Hey Benji, I’m ba-” Nick started but was silenced completely when the larger predator engulfed him in a what normally would have been a bone crushing hug. Nick couldn’t miss the tears streaming down his face if he tried.

       “Nick, buddy, I’m so glad you’re back.” he sniffled through some rather large breaths, stream of tears starting to slow. “ We missed you so much! And if you ever need something, we’ll always be here for you” his friendly attitude caused the fox to nervously blanche, he looked away for a second before forcefully riveting his gaze back to him.

“Thanks Benji, you have no idea what that means to me” 

       “It’s nothing buddy, we’re with you all the way.” a smile broke through his tears, “Now go… I really don’t think Bogo likes to be kept waiting.” as he ushered them towards the ‘hot-rooms’

As the duo left the lobby, entering into the interrogation wing of the precinct, Judy took the lull in the amount of others in the room to make a rather pointed statement. “I heard what you recorded on the carrot”

“Oh, uh, well…” he paused awkwardly, looking away and scratching lightly at the back of his head with a set of lengthy claws, “y’know It was a very spur of the moment thing I hope I didn’t creep you out or anything” he quickly added, with an awkward and unprepared tone.

Giggling, Judy reached out to him. “No, I thought it was tragically ironic of you to use the carrot to admit something like that.”

“I thought we weren’t going to make it… I had to tell you” he turned away, to try and wipe a tear away without her noticing. “I don’t want to try and make this awkward for us as partners now, but i-I’ll unders-” Judy cut him off, she had heard enough. It was time to end her part of the charade.

       “Nick, I love you too.” before she grabbed his muzzle and pressed herself into him. While they didn’t match together perfectly, Judy felt his love and affection as they both melted into the kiss.

As they parted for a quick breath, they found themselves before the previously indicated interrogation room. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”

       “I was planning on it, but when I tried to record it on the pen I came across yours… sooooo… I decided to getcha.” she shot him a melancholy, half-eared look at the lunacy of the situation.

“So what, you gonna say it now? Cuz you definitely earned it with this one” he jested

       “Fine, although, for the record. It sounds better when you say it” before she made her best Nick impression “It’s called a hustle sweetheart” the sound of his chuckled laughter bringing warmth to her core.

Nick walked with Judy to the door, it had an in-use clip on the handle. He easily twisted the handle and pulled the door open. It would be a long and hard talk, one that he preferably wouldn’t want to have. Judy would hear things that he wouldn’t want her to, and Bogo would be ready to record and write down everything. A deep breath in, a deep breath out. He stepped through the breach.

* * *

**_Eight Hours Later_ **

 

Nick had long since scratched a deep and jagged line into the steel table; a consistent nervous twitch, not missed by the chief, that ran throughout their entire session. The fox had shakily and slowly let everything he knew about what happened go, needing some coaxing during the difficult parts, Bogo was immensely glad he had decided to get the lapine to come with. Nick had shared what he knew of the doctor; who he was, a couple of snippets he remembered from the hazy months and a harebrained and conspiracy laden thought about motive. Bogo could tell that the entire situation was more than taxing on the fox, writing down numerous times his desire to schedule additional psych time for the officer. Bogo at first had to focus on keeping his facade professional through the initial part at the smug and cynical outer shell of the fox before it clicked truthfully in his mind.

After they finished the whole session, Bogo calmly reached out to click off the recorder before turning back to the two smaller mammals taking up the seat opposite him. “I want the two of you to take six more weeks off, after that I want to see you back;  **_desk duty ONLY_ ** _ ” _ he stated forcefully, “Wilde, you’ll take an additional two weeks beyond that and I expect the both of you to be on time for your psych appointments” his threatening mixture of caring and domineering played across the aged bull’s muzzle as he talked to his two most pain-in-the-ass officers. “After that, you’ll both  **_enjoy_ ** desk duty for but one more week and then I’ll consider everything when it comes to returning you to return the beat” before turning to Nick “This time I expect two things, first, you are supposed to wait for backup” he eyed both of the mammals before him, “I wish I couldn’t blame you for not” he looked around for a second, “I might've even done something similar in your circumstances… and two, If you need something…  **anything** ” he impressed the totality of the word’s meaning with a thunderous shift of posture, “we will be here for you. Just ask.”

As the duo started to leave the building the chief’s voice followed them out. “If I find out that you two aren’t going to your appointments I’ll have  **_Both_ ** of your hides on my wall!” Bogo turned back to the mountain of information and notes on his desk, pulling everything into neat and organized stacks before starting to review the evidence once more.

Judy and Nick chuckled as they exited through the front door. “What do we do for two months?” groaned the fox, “I think I’ll go stir crazy” he grabbed at his ears, playing a crazed expression through his facade in jest.

Judy fretted with one of her ears for a moment, turning to face the fox head-on “Well, you did say you liked my family’s blueberries right?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah I did” he answered, slowing down to face her as well.

       “Then I think I know what we’ll be doing” she smiled, “Hot damn, a road trip!”

“I’m pretty sure it’s only a road trip if you  **_drive_ ** fluff.” he smiled at her with his sharp-tooth grin, “and I’m fairly sure you don’t own a car Carrots” he bumped her once with a shift of his hips when they started motion once more. A snag kept hitting the back of his mind, nagging him on and on. “Do you think your family will be okay with that?” he asked, solemn expression bleeding through the cracks in his armor.

Judy sighed, placing a paw onto his arm, “I’m sure they would be, I couldn’t imagine anyone but ol’ pop’s that would have an issue” she gave him a lopsided grin, “and if they don’t I’ll kick it into em” she made her best angry face and launching a foot skyward at an imaginary foe.

The two mammals laughed and chuckled their whole way home, enjoying the first ounce of peace and quiet they’d found in months. Nick urgently found himself lost into the shower for his second shower in almost seven months, taking the opportunity, Judy pulled her phone up to muzzletime her parents and got the tickets for the train ride. Soon after the shower’s telltale click, the duo started packing up before splaying out on the couch for a night chock full of movies and popcorn. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, If you find anything that needs to be changed, feel free to leave a message.
> 
> There will definitely be more parts in this series. I look forward to writing more of them and hearing back from all of you.
> 
> \-- Leroi --


	4. Whiskey And Rie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still making good work here on my way to finishing up my edits, glad and happy to and for all who've kept reading so far.
> 
> \-- leroi --
> 
> Picture still found at: http://neytirix.deviantart.com/art/Caught-ya-Zootopia-Fanart-3-649900504

 

 

Even being off duty, Judy had decided to wear her academy clothes; the light shorts and classic ZPD shirt stood out between the open-set buttons of her very country like pink button down. “Ready to go Slick?” she asked, leaning down to her elbows to gaze across the bed at her fox.

       “Yeah, I’m ready…” he trailed off, pulling his loose fitting jacket up to cover as much as possible. “just grabbing my favorite sweatshirt and then we can go” he trailed, Judy was less than convinced at his antics.

“Are you sure Nick?” worry rife in her vocalization, “If this is too much, we can~”

       “No” he cut in, “I’m fine, I just spaced out is all” he lied, the screaming between his ears going silent for the first moment in too long.

Together they headed directly to the big train station, side by side they walked at a slow but sure pace as the domineering building fought into view. First to appear were the pointed horns of innumerable kinds that ringed the fence surrounding the property, then the long sloping roof that nearly blinded Nick with an incandescent glare from the mid morning sun.

It didn’t take too long for Nick to realize that they were drawing far more stares than in previous, what had become the normal  ‘oh look! A fox cop, that’s new’ but now had transmuted into ‘hey look its Nick Wilde, the fox cop who was tortured… oh my, look at his ears… his paws... his mouth!’  The stares burned two things into him; the crushing feeling of doubt and pity that he could easily feel drowning him through conversations he never should have been able to hear, and the sickening depth of his own self loathing that he had worked for years to keep beaten down. But on another paw, the stares gave him something to strive for; he could show them that there was so much more to mammals than their appearance, that there was so much more to a mammal than their species.

Nick’s introspection lasted all the way up to the base of the ticket booth’s steps, Nick started to reach for his wallet and identification only for Judy’s small paw to lend her weight on his. “I used my ID to order the tickets.”

Nick had half a mind to give her one of his classic and snarky replies only to be stopped by the sound of another mammal’s distressed yell. Quickly spinning to his left, he was met with a young ewe yelling at a familiar face; Duke Weasilton.  “Damn you, you, your stupid evil liar.  These are fake tickets, and I want my money back!”

        “Uhhh, sorry ma’am, there are no refunds for prior purchases and I can guarantee that anything purchased from me is legitimate, I swear.” before whispering under his breath “time to get a move on…”

Nick swiftly turned to Judy “Fluff, while you get the tickets, I think I’ll go see what’s going on over there.”

Nick quickly dipped out of the line and stalked his way over to the two creature currently duking it out over some apparently faux train tickets, as Nick finished his slow walk over to the small table set up in the corner the young doe harrumphed in annoyance and quickly turned away.  Coming face to face with Nick she let out a shocked “oh shit” before quickly moving out of his way and rushing towards the ticket stand.  “Now Weasilton, I’m sure you know that it’s illegal to scalp train tickets… not to mention the legality of selling _fake_ train tickets”

        “Sir, if you plan on buying a ticket I can give you a two for one offer… I’m short on time and need to get moving, so please be brief.”

“Now, Duke, is that any way to greet an old friend?”

        “Do I know you” came his reply, rife with disbelief; his beady eyes starting to rake over Nick’s form

“You can’t be serious” coughed Nick, “There’s no way you don’t recognize me.” he stated with finality.

Duke’s eyes roamed just a hair further, locking onto the fox’s unforgettably sharp eyes; brimming with intelligence and just a little more. To run back down the casual clothes of the vulpes before he traced back up to the familiar face; the face of Nicholas Wilde. His reply caught in his throat when he watched the fox’s steel trap open to reveal the sharp blades that filled his mouth. Nick noted the sudden tenseness that filled the body of the small weasel before he watched the Duke’s eyes travel up to his metallic ears and then down to his steely paws.

“You okay there buddy? You look like you’ve seen a ghost” Nick cautioned, trying to alleviate some of the distress flitting into horror across the face of the mammal before him

“T-there’s something wrong here.  I heard you died, died in the hospital!”

Judy cut into the conversation before Nick could give a reply. “We’re all lucky that he’s still with us, and I’d love to know who told you that horrendous rumor.”

“At least it’s not as bad as that other one that Clawhouser was telling everyone” Nick jested

        “H-hey! That’s uncalled for Nick!” as her ears flushed beet red, Duke Weasilton was completely shocked when he saw Judy wind up and slug Nick the the shoulder.  ‘ _I can’t believe that she just did that… can’t she see what’s wrong with him! OHMYGOD, I need to get out of here!’_ thought the greedy weasel.

As suddenly as Judy turned away from the Duke he bolted, brusquely shoving Judy backwards. Nick’s world slowed to a crawl as he watched, unable to help, as she tumbled back; landing with a sickening thud before the back of her skull impacted the side of a support pillar. Within the split second his eyes followed the weasel’s shove, he sprung into action, long metal claws singing a deadly tune before they met with minor resistance; a lovely tearing sound filling his metallic ears as he lifted the sniveling creature off his feet and into the air.  A threatening snarl soon adorned the Nick’s visage showing nearly all of his new teeth, “ **you hurt** **_Judy_ ** ” his arm shook with barely restrained anger for a split second before he was able to wrestle control over himself.

The lapine slowly crawled back to her feet, groaning for a brief moment in harsh pain, only to find that Nick had already caught Duke and was currently staring him down as he held the small weasel to eye level.  “Thanks for the catch slick” as she leaned onto his side to steady her swimming vision “that’s like... six? things you’ve done illegally in just an hour” before she pulled her backup radio off her belt and brought it up to her tiny maw.

“Hopps here… I’ve got a 10-91G and need another officer to pick up a weasel by the name of Duke Weasilton … over”

Clawhouser’s jubilant voice came over the radio only a moment later. “Got you Hopps, sending backup to your location” before adding “I thought you were on vacation for the next two weeks?”

Judy groaned, pawing the back of her head before starting back into the radio with a smile on her face “Clawhouser, you know they can’t resist us… Doesn’t chief not like us using radios for per-” but she was cut off before she could finish the thought

“Hopps! Clawhouser! How many times have I told you not to use the radios for personal use!” thundered Bogo

Nick looked sideways over to his partner before cracking one of his trademark grins  “Coulda called it Fluff… he’ll say that every time.”

Shortly after  their backup arrived they had to go, lest they miss their ride, the train rolled out of the station with a light hiss of it’s specialized brakes and another pneumatic hiss when the doors slip closed. “Got to go, see you next time guys!” Judy yelled from a window as the train shuddered into motion and swiftly began picking up speed.  

Fangmeyer traded a slightly concerned glance with her partner as they took in the sight before them.  The ‘Duke’ had a paper detailing everything they had cited him on pasted to his chest, had a couple of tears in the back of his shirt, and was completely silent as he sat in the center of the vehicle’s rear seating.  “Do you think he’s gonna do it again?”

Fangmeyer’s partner Barry, a Bengal tiger, turned to her before letting loose a short bout of laughter.  “You do realize we’re talking about Duke Weasilton here, right? This moron can’t get enough of his money… you’d think he’d get tired of being booked and arrested though.”

“Why doesn’t he just get a job?” she shot back

        “Probably because it’s not as much fun as it is hawking his wares around the street, running from Hopps and Wilde.  I’d just as soon say it’s something the three rehearse with how much they catch him doin silly shit”

“Think he’s going to be okay?”

        “Who, the weasel?”

“No, Wilde. He seems… thin?” she chanced, “Emotionally I mean… I hope he’ll be okay”

        “He’s strong, I’m sure he’ll be fine… besides, he’s with Judy” as he crossed his heart with a paw “I wouldn’t want to be on opposites with that bunny if it was for my own life” As they joked their way back to the squad car with the weasel.

* * *

**_Train Ride_ **

 

Judy sat next to Nick as the train sped down the tracks, they had decided to sit up on the observation deck that Judy had when she first traveled to the big city.  They watched as the metropolis quickly slid behind the endless forests and then that too by the rolling hills that dominate the landscape between the two city centers. First came Deerbrooke, a medium sized town with a decent population at only a fifty miles out from the city, and next came Bunny Burrow, aptly named because of the lack of diversity in the densely populated rural community.

Nick’s eyes bulged after they snagged onto the constantly revolving number of the population counter that raced up through the numbers.  Judy must have seen the shock in his eyes, “It’s all a lie Nick,” seeing the immediate calming on his muzzle, “the counter counts up until three thirty in the morning when it resets to the correct amount.”

“So it’s just a tourist trap?”

        “Yeah, I think the value should be at least off by half now” she checked her watch, “It is pretty late in the day right now.”

“That’s a relief, I was concerned what would happen if I stepped off this train,” he snickered, running the back of his steel paw across his muzzle, “I would have been walking across a sea of rabbits.”

“Yeah, not so much there foxy”

The duo quickly readied themselves to depart from the train, each grabbing their bags and getting by the door just in time to have it slide open with that familiar hiss.  “So Carrots, how are we getting to your parent’s place?”

        “Mom’s coming to pick us up” she quickly cut him off before he could voice his concern “yes, she knows you're a fox… and of my parents she’ll be the one that’s okay with the whole ‘us’ thing.”

Nick drew her close and pulled her into a deep hug, lacing himself around her “I love you Judy…”

        “Mm, you too”

After the moment broke, they split apart and began to search for familiar tip-offs to help find the aforementioned matriarch. Nick was the first to spot the old baby-blue truck adorned with the Hopps family logo.  “Judy, over there” he pointed out over the crowd

        “Let’s go Slick, don’t want to keep them waiting. The kits were dying to meet you” she smiled broadly.

When the duo reached the truck Judy was met with a pair of  familiar faces; her sister Kathy and her mother Bonnie.  “Hey mom, Sis! How are you guys” embracing both tightly, “it feels like it’s been forever”

Bonnie was the first to make eye contact with Nick, seeing that he was clearly uncomfortable “hello you, no need to be shy” Judy’s sister was a little less tactful when she saw the metallic points that jutted from his ears, mouth, and his paws.  “Holy shit!” she sputtered, sliding backwards several feet.

A sorrowful and pained look drowned through Nick’s masked features; overtaking his meager emotional guard before he was able to swap it out completely in favor of a completely blank stare. Bonnie acted fast when she saw the offhand comment’s effect “Don’t worry dear, she doesn’t know any better” giving an icy stare to Kathy and returning another warm and friendly one to the fox before embracing her younger daughter and whispering “we have some things to talk about later, he’s been through a lot and I don’t intend to make it any worse”

Nick had heard them, clearly, Bonnie realized it in a snap when she turned to face him once more only to be met with a sad smile.  “Thanks for the cover, but I’m starting to get used to it…” slowly trailing off

“ you shouldn’t have to Nick, you shouldn’t have to deal with it when you’re here with Judy and on vacation.”

“Thanks Mrs. Hopps”

Throwing their bags into the back of the truck, they headed out to the family farm.  Nick sat on the right with Judy on his lap, Kathy sat in the middle seat and Bonnie drove the four to the Hopps family farm. Like Zootopia sliding away behind the hills the large property slowly came into view followed by a large home-like structure in a large dome shape.  “Is that your home?” stated Nick with no small amount of awe towards the sheer magnitude of the structure in question.

“Heck yeah it is!,” she smiled broadly, “and you’d better get used to being my fluffy seat because YOU are super comfortable” she giggled wiggling in his lap before drawing his fluffy tail up into her embrace.

Nick tensed sharply as her paws raked through his tail, Judy had drawin it up across herself like a seatbelt. “And you come with some pretty great safety features too” Nick couldn’t reply as she continued to comb her paws through his fluffy tail, and after a short moment began to pant lightly.

        “Too hot in here Nick?” Bonnie asked looking over, a slight and well-hidden grin adorning her features.

‘ _Noooo’_ he thought to himself, it was because Judy wasn’t doing a good job of keeping her paws to herself and soon nor would he.  

Judy herself gasped as Nick’s arms wrapped around both her and his tail in a sturdy hug as the farm came fully into view.  When the truck came to a stop the four hopped out and procured their luggage from the truck bed.  Walking up to the door, Bonnie swung it wide with a huge smile on her face and entered followed by Kathy, Judy, and Nick himself.

The moment Nick entered the house he was bombarded by a mountain of little bunnies as they asked him a barrage of questions.  “Mr. Fox, are all foxes as tall as you? Are you all red? Why are your ears so shiny?” His only salvation was the rumbling sound of an older male rabbit.  “Now get off em kits, that’s not how we treat guests” before he turned to face Nick once more and his mouth dropped open “Hey, you’re that fox cop!” he beamed, smile slacking as his eyes roamed across steel. “I- ah- I hope you don’t mind cramped spaces buddy, we’ve a sore lack of open space here right about now” he reached over to proffer up a paw to raise Nick to his feet.

Nick cringed internally, feeling the tightening string of underlying tension as the older members of the family watched on from further away. Stu turned around to attempt to lift Nick’s duffel only to find it simply too large in volume for him to carry, “Sorry bud, your bag is a lil’ too big” he smiled, “You want a drink?” he asked, Nick nodded an affirmative as the elder rabbit padded towards the kitchen.

Judy stepped through the breach behind her mother to find an unfortunately familiar visage of her brother Dane to come into view. “Dane~” she stated with a clipped tune, clearly distrusting of her brother.

       “Judith” he answered, voice thick and heavy with accent. “You brought a fox…” he continued, stepping between her and Nick after he moved towards the kitchen to accept his drink from the Hopps patriarch. “You **_know_ ** we’re not supposed to bring that **_filth_ ** here” he spat, venom dripping from every word. He moved to step forward towards Nick until she reached a paw out to grab his own.

       “No” he angrily snapped, tearing his paw from hers and continued forward.

“Nick!” she screamed, trying to gain his attention, “Watch out!” her cry did nothing but snap his attention directly to her with both a concerned and confused look locked onto his muzzle.

       “Fuck **_You_ ** _”_ Dane spat, pressing his own ‘Fox Away’ taser into Nick’s back; flush with his spine. The effect was instantaneous, setting the canine ridgid before sliding down the doorframe and to the floor where he continued to pour more voltage into him; reaching for his belt to pull up another item, a canister of fox away spray. Judy snapped into action to stop him, colliding with yet another body before she could reach her brother, “Dan!?” she squealed, “Let me go!” he only smiled.

Dane waited for the crippled fox to let out a shuddering breath between the shocking strikes of voltage to depress the canister and spray Nick’s face; catching a glancing view of small bolts of energy snapping between his clenched teeth and his ears. Nick’s body seized over and over as the voltage scorched him on the outside and the heavy gas scorched his lungs from the inside; tears flooded from his burning eyes and his claws dug deep furrows into the wooden floor as he attempted to fight off the continued effects of the voltage.

Judy threw both paws into a ham fisted blow to her brother’s stomach which she followed with a quick kick to the chin to incapacitate him before diving at Dane. “Get off him you monster!” she cried, tears streaming down her own face.

       “Whu?” gasped Dane in time for Judy’s knee to contact the back of his skull with thunderous force; sending the brown rabbit crashing into the doorframe across from her fox. “You fucking stay away!” she screamed, tears streaming down her face as she continued her assault verbally, not caring in the slightest that he was already unconscious before turning to face her father. “ **_YOU!_ ** _”_ she screams, spittle splashing out in anger.

“ **_YOU_ ** wanted this to happen, didn’t you!” she accused, tossing threatening glares across the room at every single one of her family members that sprouted from the woodwork during the ordeal. She took a moment to spare a glance down to her fox, still arcing every couple seconds as steam billowed from his scorched flesh. Judy didn’t wait for her father to even open his mouth, “I - **_we_ ** \-  Don’t need this from you! Any of you!” she reached for her phone to dial nine one-one.

       “N-now honey… don’t you think you’re being rash?” attempted Stu only to become the sole focus on his daughter’s rage.

She locked to the spot, overcome with rage and wrath for the treatment of **_her_ ** fox and the ongoing theme becoming apparent, “ **_NO_ ** !” she thundered, grabbing a nearby vase and hurling it into the wall adjacent to her father before continuing, “This is all **_your_ ** fault, **_you_ ** planned this! **_You_ ** backwards, speciest **_BASTARD!_ ** _”_ she screamed in rage once more before leaning down to Nick to try and lift some of his weight up onto her shoulder.

Nick attempted to speak, but his speech was garbled and ruined by the mix of voltage and aerosol toxin. Judy quickly moved to drag his barely conscious form back through the doorway and onto the porch as the blaring sounds and lights of an ambulance screamed into view.

* * *

**_Precinct One, Several Hours Later_ **

 

Bogo put down his desk phone, sighing, he poured himself another heavy thumb of liquor and downed it far faster than the last three. “Fuck” he stated to himself with rage. “How does this fucking happen?!” reading through the freshly printed reports littered across his desk. He held his head in his hands almost at the same moment as a rapping knock came to his door.

“Yes, come in” he replied, attempting to make himself appear more presentable

       “Hello” came a soft voice, “My name is Skye Winter” answered the pale furred vixen now before his desk. “I’ve been assigned as Nicholas Wilde’s psychiatrist” she elaborated, “Our first meeting is scheduled for this upcoming Friday, however, I would like to see if I can move this meeting forward”

“I… uh, I don’t think that will be much of a problem” answered the chief, “I think they will be back here within the city center within a day or so” he used a meaty paw to wave about meaningfully as he continued. “Their four day break has been unfortunately cut short”

       “That’s a shame” answered the vixen before placing the advancement documents onto the desk before the buffalo.

“That it is” he unconsciously answered, pulling the document up to sign it an hand it back.

       “I look forward to working with you going forward Sir, have a wonderful day” she answered in far too peppy a tone, rending another defeated sigh out of the one ton Chief.


	5. Something Touched Me Deep Inside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keeping on moving and thank you for reading!
> 
> -Leroi

 

**__ **

**_Two Days - ZPD Psych Office_ **

       “Mr. Wilde, how  **_are_ ** you?” the vixen’s voice was smooth as silk as she addresses her newest patient.

“Hello, I think I’m doing…  _ better _ , Miss Winters” he answered with some aspect of difficulty that added a nebulous wonder to her look of pure formality.

The vixen moved to move around several of the papers on her desk, included among the official local paperwork was a brief notation of the event earlier in the week. “Could you elaborate for me?” she asked, “anything that you’d immediately like to share with me?” she twirled her pen in paw as she awaited his response.

“I… uh… I don’t really know where to start” he answered honestly, still maintaining the neutral facade that had been plastered to his maw for most nearly all of his life. “I-I’ve been trying to keep it down for a long time, y’know?” he both asked and stated in equal measure.

       “Well,” she paused to think through her words first, “Let’s start with you; tell me about your recent hardships, your feelings concerning these hardships and anything else you might like to tell me”

Nick gulped almost audibly, he could tell that even though she wasn’t looking directly at him, he could clearly tell she was intently aware of his every single move. “The way people look at me” he suddenly blurted out.

       “Yes? What about the way they look at you…” she prompted, tempering her expression to maintain calm.

“They look at me like I’m some kind of broken toy!” a slight sob wrenched free from his defenses, “I-it’s like I’m no longer a person… just a shattered fucking mirror

       “That’s good” she smiled lightly; facing down his horrid frown with a light smile, putting one of her paws over his, “it’s good to talk about these things” he didn’t look up, instead he crunched inwards further; placing his head through his laced arms to stare at the floor while his armor caved around him like an aluminum can.

Skye smiled harshly at this, “ _ This might be easier than I had thought” _ a couple of teeth showed for a brief moment before she masked her expressions again. “Thank you Mr. Wilde, we can go as slow as you need” she put her documents together once more, “take as long as you need and do please come back next week at this time” she pulled a slip off of her set of post-its and jotted down the open slots in her schedule before placing at the apex of his shuddering form and leaning back into her comfy chair.

* * *

 

**_Eighteen Days - ZPD Psych Office_ **

This time, when Nick shuffled through the doorway he looked much better and slightly more stable; she internally frowned, “Hello Mr. Wilde, how has your week been?” she prompted, pulling her chair up to her side of the desk.

This time, the vulpine officer actually smiled back; “It’s been going much better!” he sounded happy, but her professional intuition told her that there was still quite the beast lurking beneath the surface. “I haven’t gone out all that much” he answered, bowing his head in a moment of sheepish truth. “But it’s been alright, I’ve gotten to Judy a little better” he reasoned, clearly unsure of his own reasoning “and we  **_have_ ** gone out… but I don’t know” he finished.

       “Don’t know what Mr. Wilde?” she let her pen come up from her pad to look him in the eye.

“I don’t know if I can… you know what I mean?” he offered, leaning forward, “I bet you do, It’s just~” he clipped off, bringing his claws into view and motioning towards his face, “I don’t know how I can go back to normal like this”

       “That’s not so much of a problem Mr. Wilde,” placing her pad onto the desk face down, “The physical appearance of these unfortunate changes are something that I fear must be  **_accepted_ ** Mr. Wilde” he looked at her horrified for a second, changing to concerned when she continued. “My experience with other patience of similar nature give me pause for your situation” she answered honestly, “but like them, you too will eventually become acclimated to them and will no longer find yourself at odds with it”

Nick paused, trying to work through her words; thankful for her lack of jargon. “I uh, I didn’t really think of it that way… but yeah, thanks”

* * *

 

**_Judy - Private Detective Office_ **

Clenching fists, crunching paper, tossing ruined documents, printing new ones. How long would this cycle continue? Judy sighed heavily, looking up from her desk to the mess of a board above her; dotted and absolutely covered with documents and pictures relating to her fox and the events that had transpired over the past couple months. She pawed between several of her desk-copies of his x-rays and through several medical files before turning to tack them back to where they belonged on the wall; moving to stand directly before the giant mess of red string and push pins. “ _ Where could it be coming from?” _ she wondered, staring at the different and splayed locations and how it matched up with the multiple locations that had become hot zones during their searches as well as the All Saints Veterinary building. She pressed a paw to the x-ray of Nick’s skull, “I’m so sorry Nick.” She stepped back up to her seat and dropped in unceremoniously, preferring to continue her work rather than let idle time pass by; taking up her leather-bound notebook and a pen to continue preserving her thoughts and ideas on the situation.

Suddenly, her desk phone started to ring, once more pulling her from the train of thought. “Hello?” she asked, leaning back into her swivel chair; looking distantly through her desk lamp.

       “Hello, is this Officer Hopps?” the voice asked, calmly and simply.

“Speaking” replied the lapine, “Who’s asking?” she added with a hint of a smile beneath the mask of a long day’s work.

       “This would be Agent Savage, from the ZBI, I’ve got a couple questions for you and your partner Mr. Wilde” the mammal on the other end spoke, Judy realized her immediate distaste for the other participant in the call was due to their overly serious-sounding voice.

“What day are you looking at?” asked the lapine, leaning just a hair further back as she twiddled a finger through the stretched cord.

“I’m here at Precinct One now, I’d like to meet today and as soon as possible” As the voice relayed the parameters of their meeting, Judy slipped from her chair, having learned it backwards too far by mere inches; causing both herself and her desk phone to crash to the floor in a spectacular heap.

       “Is everything alright Officer?” the agent sounded concerned, Judy only huffed, lifting herself and her chair back into position before taking up her phone once more.

“Yes, yes, everything is alright.” she paused, rubbing the bridge of her nose, “When you say as soon as possible, just how soon is that?”

* * *

 

**_Precinct One - Subfloor Offices_ **

“Find anything yet?”

With a slight grumble, “No, Mr. Wilde, Nothing yet”

“How about now?” he asked again, barely moments later

This continued on and on for nearly another hour before the physician from the coroner’s office screamed in frustration and ran out the door crying.  The coroner sat down next to Nick with a huff and simply watched the door swing back and forth as Nick’s smile beamed grey and his heavy tail wooshed against the tabletop.  Insanely bored with the current situation, Judy dropped her head into her paws and groaned loudly. “Goddammit Nick, why are you this way?” she bemoaned.

“Because it’s better than sitting here silently while they poke me over and over to figure out why my moving parts move” his expression turned steely for a second, “It’s the least I can do to not go raving mad.

       “But at this rate we’ll  **never** getting finished”

* * *

 

**_Precinct One_ **

Jack stepped through the lobby, walking towards the heavy fire-door leading to the precinct’s subfloors; stopping when an officer blocked his way. “Good morning Officer” he answered simply, revealing his bureau identification card and garnering a single nod before his way was unblocked with haste. Jack quickly stepped down the stairs and into the first of the two subfloors and began walking through the hallway looking for the coroner’s office, looking upwards to the ceiling-mounted signs to guide his way.

The walk to the office was stunningly short and easy to find, the door sung an old creaky tune as it pried free from the doorway and allowed him entry into the small office.  “Hello Officers” he greeted, “Hopps and Wilde, I presume” before stepping up to shake paws with each; earning him a slightly raised brow from the vulpine when the striped hare followed through even in lieu of his sharp claws.

“And you are?” asked Nick, pulling his legs up into a more comfortable posture on the table.

       “I am Agent Savage” answered the striped mammal, pulling his overcoat off to reveal a plain button down undershirt with a pair of under-arm holsters that clearly still had contents. “I’ve recently been following closely with the bureau to capture and contain a small group of mammals” he nodded towards Nick, “We had a scientist that was captured from one of our facilities that specialized in mechanical constructs similar to those” he turned to the side to put his coat onto a nearby chair back before stepping closer with a small black pouch in paw.

“What do you need to do?” Nick hesitated for a moment, unsure of the nature of the agent’s arrival and even less so on his intentions.

       “I just need to check them for serial numbers or identifying markings” he looked up into the larger predator’s eyes, “It’s a good thing the agency doesn’t want to take these back” he made an all-encompassing motion with his paws to the entirety of the fox, “There’s between a four and six percent chance of surviving having any of them removed.” 

Nick’s normally stellar record for straight faced appearances shattered, “W-what!?” he asked, perturbed by the offhand comment, “What do you mean by ‘doesn’t want’?!” he demanded, showing his hurt and scared expression in an attempt to pry truth from the hare.

       “I meant every word Mr. Wilde,” he sat down and quickly began examining his footpaws, “The agency has already made several notices that make mention of these,” he smiled broadly, “They actually released another one today that applied several active notices on yourself, mechanical assistance included of course” his professionally friendly demeanor sent a chill down Judy’s spine. “Long story short, they’ll let you keep them because they know your far too ‘high-profile’ to get away with anything stupid as well as how easy it’d be to track someone with implants like these”

Nick was unsure if he should be thankful for such a thing or if there was some type of ulterior motive hanging just below the surface. “Well… I do suppose that is a good thing Mr. Savage” Nick’s calming appearance showed through his augments just as much as his muzzle.

Jack continued to use his tools to search around the implants for any serial numbers, finally finding some luck when he checked between the “bones” of his foot; letting out a repressed sigh when the plate the numbers had been attached to was clearly ruined by some type of damage. “Well, fuck” he muttered, flicking off his pen light and removing his small magnifying glass.

“Is something wrong?” asked Nick, leaning back into a sitting position as Judy also shuffled closer to get a better view. 

Judy reached out and laid a paw on her fox’s leg as she took in the sight before her, “Yeah, what’s got an agent like you in such a tizzy?”

Jack sighed again, leaning back into the chair he’d previously pulled up, “The serial numbers were scratched off, It’d be more than safe to assume that if they could find that first set, they’d most definitely have found and removed the others.” he gently placed his tools back into the small pouch and onto the counter. 

“So what are you looking for” started Nick, “you know that these don’t have numbers, but you know they were yours based on the placement of the series digits” he paused, running through his thoughts quickly, “You must be looking for your specialist” he finished, shooting a cursory glare across to the hare.

       “That we are Mr. Wilde” the agent paused for a moment, “As I understand it, you are on medical leave for the better part of the next months, yes?” he asked, clearly towards the vulpine.

“Yeah, I’ll be back to desk duty - pending psych evaluations - in only forty days!” the fox scratched incessantly at a spot on his back while he matched the agent’s blank stare, tossing his hands up in mock celebration before dropping it. “Is there something else you need?”

       “Not immediately Mr. Wilde,” he hid his smirk below a professional demeanor and turned to face Judy, “Miss Hopps, I’ll be making a formal request to your Chief to have you and your partner, when he’s ready of course, into a small team to assist in rooting out this little problem.” Judy merely nodded her assent, unsure of the direction the agent was taking, but understanding what had been said nonetheless. After he finished packing up, Jack stepped from the room, heading outwards and upwards to the Office of the Chief.

* * *

 

**_Warehouse District - Pride-Rock Ave_ **

A small huddled mass of grey and black fur crouched at the small junction box; snagging wires together over and over to produce small sparks and hiccups in the power as it flowed to and from the building’s supply. She panted a couple times, the long winding sprint she’d taken to get away from them hadn’t done her much good, perhaps prolonging her time by a couple seconds; she worked faster at the thought of the tracker embedded in the soft flesh of her neck. 

Faye had spent the past four days delaying, trying her best to make applicable progress that would keep her out of the proverbial ‘Dog-House’ with her captors without really making any progress towards the final design of the machines. These augmentations were originally intended for use only in a medical field to act as fully functioning limbs for those who had lost theirs, they eventually alienated her desires; turning her project into weapons that were to be used with mammals and then into weapons that didn’t  **_need_ ** a mammal, a light sob pricked from her throat at the idea of what they planned to do with her discoveries and inventions. They were easily used to replace a mangled or broken limb that provided thousands of times greater efficiency than any other mechanical prosthetic.  

Deep in thought, hunched over her computer, she put in the last few lines of code that would be needed for simple activation of the printing device.  ‘ Hopefully this will satiate their need from me for now ’ she hoped, if not, it would get ugly and fast. The last time she failed to meet their expectations, one she met with complete refusal to do what they asked; she woke up four days later with several cracked ribs, a bad concussion and a couple dislocated tail bones.  After that, she decided that it was in her best interests to do what they asked, if only the very smallest amount of it. Never did she intend to finish the project, instead intending to put in a backdoor code allowing her to activate the self destruct as needed. She had just finished putting those lines in when that infernal bear and a couple of his henchmen reentered into the warehouse proper.  “Doctor Amherst” a light clapping sound could be heard reverberating between the sheet-metal walls, “I see you’ve finally given us what we needed” she was shocked to hear a different voice mix with the first, the voice’s owner coming into the light only moments later.

“ **_Jack_ ** _ ” _ she hissed, “w-what is this!” she demanded, frightened by the appearance of the striped agent.  “Are you here to kill me?” the hazardous question hung heavy in the air, leaving a hungering maw where the answer should have been.

The lapine smirked and began to chuckle lightly, a second figure coming out of the darkness filling the building’s interior, a pale vixen, “And you are?” asked the leopard.

       “I’m a specialist,” answered the snowy mammal, looking over the doctor’s lab notes. “I specialize in” she smiled cruelly, “ **_things_ ** _ ”  _ as she pawed through Faye’s notebooks with an interest barely veiled.

Jack worked quickly to separate the leopard’s bindings, standing her up when he was finished. “Now that that is over, Faye, The bureau thanks you for your infallible duty for the state and your sacrifice”

“ **_WHAT!_ ** _ ” _ she screeched, attempting to reel back only to catch the scorching flash from the lapine’s service pistol along with the crushing pain from being shot. Coughing, she tried to crawl backwards after slumping down only to have her path blocked by the vixen.

       “Truly,” laughed the vixen, viciousness glowing in her eyes, “We have our orders and I do apologize” she gave a soft smile before leaning down and pressing an injector into her neck. Faye couldn't scream, her voice died in her throat and the strength left her bones; weakly trying to seize up for a moment before falling still.

Jack stepped over to the doctor’s front as well, standing evenly with his partner. “The vat” he murmured simply, lifting the dying mammal by her paws while his partner followed with her legs; the shuffle lasted barely a couple meters before they reached the vat of roiling grey liquid. “It was a pleasure working with you Doctor Amherst”, he said calmly, pressing her body over the lip of the vat and dropping her insensate form inside. He softly turned to his vulpine partner, whom already began to busily tap away on the terminal attached to the mechanical pool. “Skye” he started, earning a quick glance, “When will she be done?” he asked piling up stacks of her notes and placing them into a pair of backpacks.

       “Probably between five and six weeks," shrugging noncommittally and lifting a lone brow "give or take a couple days” she pivoted around to face him fully, “Why?” stepping over to raise her own pack to her shoulders before meandering towards the doorway where the striped lapine had already begun waiting.

“Because our friend Wilde gets off medical leave in five and a half weeks” he smiled, “I think we might be able to speed up our timeline, just the smallest bit”, he grinned broadly while stepping over a pair of dead bodies and around several more before reaching the unlocked exit door, “we might even finish with some time to spare” before propping the door open and pulling his phone up from his pocket.

Skye stepped past, making sure to keep her pristine coat clear of the sanguine liquid, “Cleaners?” 

“Of course” he answered, clicking the fob for their issued vehicle.


	6. I Can't Remember If I Cried

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still forging ahead with my edits, I'm filling as many plot holes as I can. if I've missed any, please comment on it so I can fix it. But the next chapter will be in the works soon. Thank you for your patience and continued support.
> 
> \-- http://neytirix.deviantart.com/art/Don-t-give-up-Zootopia-Fanart-4-656746167
> 
> Enjoy!

  

 

**_Twenty Seven Days - ZPD Psych Office_ **

 

“Hello Miss. Winters” nodded the todd, walking calmly into the room; emotions much better hidden than in previous meetings.

The psych took her glasses off the bridge of her muzzle and tucked them into a coat pocket before laying her head down on a latticework of digits while she stared at the russet figure in silence; inspecting his visage for any tells of what he might be thinking or what he might have been trying to hide, surprised to find that she could no longer read his expression. “Mr. Wilde” she smiled broadly, “How are you?” she pulled a pen and pad up from beneath her desk and laid it down onto her lap.

“I’m quite well Miss. Winters,” he paused for a second, thinking back across their meetings, “If you don’t mind… why are you my psychiatrist?” noting her expression, “and not Mr. Mooseberg… I’d thought he was the official medical officer for our precinct” he asked calmly, letting nothing bleed through his expression.

“It was decided by some higher ups that I would take his position on your case due to the **_uniqueness_ ** of your scenario as well as my prior experience with post traumatic stress and victims of war” she responded keeping her light and airy stance while speaking plainly in a manner that imitated truthful speaking.

“So you were in the military?” he asked, clearly seeing through some aspect of her guise.

She froze for an instant, finding herself at a loss for a second before starting back up, “Why yes, I served for a pair of tours as a medical officer prior to my early retirement” Nick nodded his assent, leaning back in his chair; smiling kindly in a manner that did wonders towards convincing her that he **_didn’t_ ** actually suspect anything.

“I was just wondering” he scraped down his muzzle with his claws, already seeming far more comfortable with them, “You seemed far **_too_ ** comfortable with all this” the tod smirked awkwardly and lifted his shoulders with care as he laid back and sighed heavily.

* * *

**_Detectives Wing, Private Office_ **

 

Judy sat calmly at her desk, slowly typing away on one of her recent reports; having come back into work fully was definitely a step into the right direction for her personal stability. She reeled her chair backwards, spinning listlessly for a couple moments as she addressed her little office space; spying the mounting dust hanging heavily on the empty desk behind her, “ _Better keep it clean”_ she internally tittered, pulling her desk drawer open to snag a small bottle of spray and a somewhat dirty rag; stepping over to what would soon be her partner’s desk and starting to clean. She continued in a sedated manner, lazily and thoughtlessly cleaning the desk until a loud crashing sound echoed through the partially empty wing along with calls for help.

“Hey, Ma’am, please calm down!” it was Wolford, clearly struggling if his voice was anything to go off of, “Ma’am, cease and desist!” when Judy rounded the corner, she was treated to a sight of a barely clothed female leopard; a blank expression etched into her chisled features as she all but threw the lupine officer aside, effortlessly snapping the strong chain holding the hastily applied cuffs together in the process.

“Woah” breathily stated the grey rabbit, her movements steadying and becoming more cautious; hallmark training for officers of the law. Judy snagged her taser from her hip and her tranq pistol from the opposite leg, using her taser-laden paw to keep her aim steady while she cautiously, leg-by-leg stepped closer to the feline. “Ma’am, please stop” she asked politely, hoping to stall out the dirty and all-out sort of fight that was starting to brew.

The creature standing before the desk howled in a hollow and threatening manner, snapping her jaws at the rabbit in a threatening gesture that doubled into an offensive act when she crossed the distance between herself and the tossed lupine with a stretch, lifting the large bodied canine overhead before casually tossing him like a ragdoll. There was no other option, Judy dove to the floor in time for Wolford to fly past, cringing at the yelp drawn from deep in his core when he crashed spine-first into a nearby water fountain; her momentary shock at the transpiring events were cut clean when a cold paw wrapped around her form in a constricting manner, lifting her up to eye level.

“Ma-” she started, staring into the dead eyes of the feline mammal, seeing a shudderingly familiar color glinting from her teeth and through a couple scratches that had punctured her coat. “Fuck” she gasped gutturally, firing off her loaded tranq and jabbing furiously into anything within reach of her taser.

The taser crackled with power, causing the leopard to move her paw further away from her body; effectively keeping the arcing box away from her head and torso before throwing her at the floor. Judy smashed into the marble tile head-first, feeling something within her crack as her body flattened with the impact, she tried her damndest to raiser herself up to her paws, finding her right arm completely useless dropped her back to the floor where darkness quickly met her.

* * *

**_Nick, ZPD Lobby_ **

 

Nick waited for the elevator door to slide back open, his latest session with the counselor had lasted a tad longer than he’d have hoped; now he’d definitely be late for his partner’s lunch break. The vulpine officer slowly drew a ragged breath in and let it go longingly as the doors pried back open, he froze to the spot, everything smelled wrong; he could scent fear, adrenaline… _‘JUDY!’_ his mind roared, forcing his body to snap into action; his claws tearing long furrows through the thick metal of the elevator and across an many feet of unfortunate marble flooring.

He tore around the corner, screaming past the suspiciously empty front desk and towards the source of the horrifying scent. The bright hallway lights blurred for a moment as Nick’s rigid form shot through the remaining hallway to come face to face with something he’d only ever had nightmares of. A frosty grey figure, riddled with spines from what had to be an entire stockpile of tranquilizers; his eyes snuck along her length for only a moment to pull in every detail he could. Her leg had been severely injured, the torn pelt revealing gunmetal grey steel below her “flesh”, _“No”_ he hissed inwardly, already drawing horrid conclusions about the creature.

The feline let out a grating and metallic howl, rattling and unsettling all present as it spun a full one-eighty; ignoring the other officers to address the only thing it’s HUD showed as a threat. The feline’s lips raised evenly, showing all of her teeth in a display of predatory dominance as she advanced on the fox with a fully threatening gait. Nick shuffled backwards uneasily, as the **_thing_ ** advanced towards him, lifting up his paws, “Ma’am, plea~” was as far as he got before she lunged forward with her claws out, forcing him to the floor under her soon to be expected weight.

“ **_Get off_ ** ” he growled through clenched jaws; fighting to keep her maw closed with one paw and her flurried swipes away with the other, his speakers allowing for his voice to permeate through his clenched maw and razor teeth. “ **_I Said, GET OFF!_ ** _”_ he dug his claws into her hide before jolting forward to hurl her up and off. Nick surged to his feet with a couple hasty clicks from his claws digging into the tile, leaving more deep scratches as he regained stability before readying to surge forward once more only to stop at the sight before him. His own snarl was matched with her own, but now he could see through her ruined torso, solid metal ribs and mechanized inner workings now greeted him through the tears where he’d accidentally cut through her hide; sickening bile rising in his throat as he regarded the inadvertent damages he’d caused nearly instantly, her pelt had been torn into ribbons along her torso and certainly would have been a deathblow to any **_living_ ** mammal.

The faux creature didn’t speak, instead it dove at him in his moment of thought; their combined weight far in excess than the walling could bear, sending both cascading downwards in a hail of shattered planks and ruined drywall. Throughout their momentary fall, she continued to slash and claw at the fox who barely managed to cover his vulnerable extremities by bringing his paws up in defence; long flashes of sparks jetted off at each strike matching in time with horrid and harrowing clangs.

At the sudden feeling of solid ground beneath him, Nick’s lower half surged upwards, bucking off the grey leopard with enough force to send her skittering away and setting the fox up for a full-bodied hit, sending her into a nearby wall; knocking the cinderblocks ary under the sheer force of the impact. Nick had no words for his surprise when she didn’t even stagger under his sundering attack, reaching back out to grab him by his arm and then shoulders to smash **_him_ ** into the wall with easily as much force.

Nick’s whole world exploded into white hail for a second as he crashed head first through the concrete and into the locker room, smashing back first into a set of metal lockers; crushing their feeble construction in like empty cans. The metal figure came through the breach only a second later, her fur all but gone to reveal an entirely metal body underneath, a harsh and hungry look glued to her face as she levied some of her monumental strength to tear a wire-filled conduit off the wall. The todd began to sluggishly struggle towards solid footing at the sight of the sparking lines, but was ultimately moments too slow, standing up directly into her outstretched claws and being met in the neck by the scorching voltage. His whole body locked up under the strain, his flesh and organic muscle tensing at the false signals while his robotic parts went limp as he flashed in and out of consciousness in bright pings of red and black.

Bogo leapt into action, hearing the sound of screaming and the light sounds unique to the tranquilizers forced him into overdrive; flying down the main steps and following the claw-marked path through the lobby and into the booking office. His lapine officer was on the floor with several officers performing medical on her insensate form; he grimaced at the sight of the ‘small’ classed backboard. “Wilde’s through there with her” called Wolford, clutching an injured arm. Bogo stepped through the absolutely obliterated wall, ducking underneath and dropping into the ruined lockeroom where he could clearly see the vulpine crumpled to the floor with a still-arcing bundle of wires lying to his side. “ _Fuck”_ the Chief muttered to himself, sizing up the final figure; the feline’s figure was completely bare now, fur all but gone to reveal that she was not flesh and blood as they had thought. “More?!” he tensed, growling out the word as he stepped forward closer to the figure, unable to notice the small mechanisms beginning to surface in his vulpine officer as he stamped forward, preparing to lay into the metal construct with a heavy fist.

Nick’s senses started to prick his mind as he fought back to his senses; feeling the cracks in his skull matching up with the missing shards of his sanity, fully feeling the cranium-rending pain for a single moment before he blacked out again. His body moving only through autopilot; steel-grey ears twitched to the sounds of crawling metal as his bones were snapped back into place and braced with grey filaments that doubled to keep his few remaining organic muscles tied down to his flesh. After his reinforced body finished it’s repair and replication of broken structuring, the fox slowly raised off the floor, his injuries all but completely healed; regarding both his chief and the metal mammal with no thought or emotion, his titan grip crushing deep handholds into the locker he’d been forced through.

His once emerald eyes burned to a bloody red, addressing his superior with a dead gaze; sizing up the threat the flesh creature could provide, quickly deeming him less than worth the time as the bovine lost ground swiftly against the machine, only waiting for the right moment to dive forward and strike. That perfect opportunity arrived in the form of Bogo’s foot slipping, dropping him unceremoniously onto the ground in a heap with the leopard standing over him in a victorious manner; Nick took it unthinkingly, diving forward with a growl sounding not unlike a roaring engine, driving one set of claws between the plates beside her spine and the other higher where her neck met shoulders. Nick didn’t even regard at the panting flesh below him, straining instead against the integrity of his assailant’s construction for moments as the construct before him failed spectacularly. Her steel spine snapped with a horrid thunk and a last dying groan escaped her speakers as he ripped into her chassis with a cold fury; in the final moments before she would shut down forever, Nick engaged his internal systems and firewall to ensure total and entire annihilation. He interfaced with her core through his palms, running diagnostics and deleting any and all saved data to ensure it couldn’t be found and used.

Red warning notifications blinked through his vision as his interface fully finished, having wormed through the entirety of her systems; finding that her actions were guided by a base set of parameters and that the chassis contained to higher intelligence, nor did it appear to have ever contained one. The revelation was paltry and unimportant to the fox, concerning more so were caches of small construction-capable machines being contained within her chassis in small partitions along with code for what could easily have been a detonation protocol. His right arm snapped to the side rigidly to tear two of the internal containment units, his connection through her now dead systems allowing him to assimilate the two caches before internally detonating the remaining two. The nano-tech flowed from her quickly disintegrating corpse of twisted metal and into openings in his own chassis in the form of thick, blood-like liquid.

Nick’s patience lasted until her body crumbled away completely, he quickly turned to the flesh creature still lying on the floor before him. Bogo, in turn, looked up, hoping to give his thanks towards the fox only to find himself staring into glowing red eyes that sent chills down his spine. A set of grey blades latched around his neck, guiding his body up from the floor in a crouched position that left him level with the muzzle of the fox; his keen gaze quickly saw several snicks that still remained in his fur that revealed the bright grey interior growing beneath. The vulpine machine crooked his superior’s straining neck to look directly into his eyes as his maw cracked open to reveal his saw-toothed maw. He snapped it open and closed experimentally twice before he let it open slowly, leaning inwards to deal a final and fatal blow.

“ **STOP** ”

The voice carried enough cadence to bring pause to the mechanical fox, slowly drawing his gaze over to focus onto the figure standing with the light at his back. Nick’s systems made quick work to filter out the light, balancing it so he could make visual contact with whomever interrupted him. His eyes locked with a striped lapine, clad in an ominous black suit, an agitated snarl etching into his muzzle with an undeviating nature.

“ **Let him go** ”

The agent’s voice carried heat, Nick’s visual systems quickly registered a pair of pistol shaped outlines beneath the edges of his overcoat, causing him to drop the buffalo and lower into a defensive stance; he growled loudly, a sound caught halfway between a revving engine and a chainsaw. Jack’s training kicked in as soon as he saw the abnormal coloration in the todd’s eyes, leaping to the side instinctually as a locker-face carved cleanly through the small space he’d previously occupied; missing him by only a couple inches. “ _Fuck”_ he thought, taking stock of his soon-to-be combatant before the vulpine would be on him.

The Todd’s body jetted forward, spraying tile chunks and dust as his clawed paws provided ample traction for his leap at the agent. Jack barely managed to duck the first swipe, having to throw himself to the floor behind the fox to avoid the second and following third. Nick’s body immediately shifted to keep the small creature within the confines of his HUD, careful to not overextend himself and force weakness. Jack’s paw slowly curled into his sleeve, dropping a small data-knife into his grip; the needle-like blade arcing for a quarter second, testing it for power before he would go paw-to-paw with the fox once more.

Nick dove forward, torso pivoting in mid-air trying to claw the suited hare into ribbons. The servos in his arm told him he had missed before his eyes could register the fact, already angling himself for another leap upon landing. The fox slid several more feet, foreclaws tearing through the tiles, sending him spinning back to facing the agent; now brandishing his small blade and maintaining a combative stance. Nick growled again, sounding far more mechanical than before as servos hissed and clasps clicked, all the while crouching down lower before launching off once more.

Bogo’s star-filled vision was slowly clearing, the occasional chunk of tile was enough to assist the process to fruition; gifting him a frightening view of a fox going absolutely off-rail. “Wilde!” he called out, struggling up to his hooves, nearly falling before managing to steady himself on part of the ruined construction that surrounded them. Bogo watched with slow eyes, the sparks flying around the two figures reached a crescendo when the mechanized fox slammed a wayward strike into the concrete behind the agent, sending a slough of rubble tumbling downwards. Jack was caught off guard by the shift in tactics from dumb-fire to intelligent and cunning, “God! FUCK!” he screamed, feeling the bones in his leg crunch beneath the deluge of concrete. Jack attempted to wiggle free, finding that it’s heft was far more than he could shift alone, braced himself for the upcoming strike; watching with defiant eyes as his objective closed in for the kill.

Nick’s paw raised up from the ground, his claws singing a deadly tune through the dust-heavy air before they began to slice downwards. Jack shut his eyes sharply and looked away, the expected blow never landed; he cautiously opened his eyes and looked up, shocked to see the fox’s paw slightly to the side. It’s wayward placement was owed to the massive form of the chief crushing the fox into the tiled floor with nearly his entire weight, Jack could hear the gears and servos in the fox’s chassis click up into higher gears as he started to raise back up to his full height. Before Nick could get a chance to finish what had already been started, the striped hair lanced his right arm forward, plunging the thin blade of titanium and wire between a high set of ribs and into the fox’s heart before depressing the trigger with as much strength as he could muster. The effects were near instant, the fox shuddered and dropped under the weight of the chief of precinct one. The pulsed electrical signals were far too weak to do much more than shock the fox, but the signal the pulses carried caused the mechanized limbs to reset and buckle.

With Bogo slowly standing up from around the crumpled fox, Jack finally let out his pent up breath “Fuck!” he screamed, slumping back down as the adrenaline in his blood thinned out to reveal the state of his leg.

Bogo looked at him with a worried expression, “Are you alright? Will he be alright!” he had too many questions and not enough answers.

Bogo’s strength and stature allowed him to pull the rubble off wholesale and bring the lapine up to stand on his one good foot, stopping to look sorrowfully at his injured and bodily-broken officer. Jack was quick to snatch his blade from the fox’s chest, tucking the tool away in one of the myriad pockets of his torn suit jacket. “The voltage wasn’t enough to hurt him, an’” he grimaced, “The agency calls them MOD’s” Jack turned, hobbling towards the nearby door back into the main lobby of the precinct.

Before the agent could get too far away, Bogo leapt up to him, “Could this happen again?” the sharp expression in his face made it clear to Jack that he’d certainly not find a way to worm free until the Chief found his answers. “Uhm, No” he answered carefully, “when the other one shocked him with the conduit, it must have stopped his heart for more than a second or so” the rabbit played up his leg for a second to guise finding his words, “That, along with the agency’s master codes are the only way to get into and override the implants or constructs” Jack could see that he wasn’t making enough headway, something had to give. “I’ll have the R&D send you a copy of their report, and if push comes to shove, we can monitor him for you”. With that, Jack hobbled away from the shocked bovine; reaching into another of his pockets to retrieve his phone ‘ _of course_ ’ he cursed at the spiderweb of cracks that lined the glass. Instead, he tapped a spot behind his ear, “Skye, meet me on location. We have a situation”

 

 


	7. Critical Overload

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally begin to move back into the action, none of this dancing around, not anymore! Nick begins to act strange, something is wrong with him... something is fishy... its that mix, just like crate of dynamite. Absolutely unstable.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the story so far, there is still more to go!
> 
> Please go and look at Ney's pictures, they truly are excellent.
> 
> \- Leroi

As Judy strolled back into her living room, she noticed a familiar pile of red fur on the couch. “Nick?” she questioned towards the mammal, her suspicions soon to be fulfilled.

“Mooom, I just want to sleep another couple of minutes” replied the fox sleepily, turning and rolling over, he pushed himself deeper into the couch’s comfortable cushions.

Shaking her head, Judy grabbed hold of the fox’s paw and began to try to drag it, and him by proxy, off the couch.  Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t manage to drag the larger predator off the couch. “NIIIICK!” she bemoaned, “We’ve got the midday shift! We’ve got to get ready… chief’ll have our hides if we don’t get there on time”

When Nick continued to refuse to get up, she resorted to the strongest tactic she could manage.  Straddling the fox, she reached up and grabbed a handful of whiskers in each paw and began to wiggle his face around.  

“Mmphhh, -oooom, shtaph meffing wif mue fashe” mumbled the fox, but even with his best efforts, the miffing of his face via the use of his whiskers as handlebars.  With the fox, literally being moved like a puppet, and the slowly dawning reaction spreading across his features.  The moment his eyes opened Judy got an eyeful of her partner’s steel trap of a maw and a split visage sporting one crimson eye and one emerald one.

With Judy’s paws still clinging to his face, Nick spoke up “udy?” he mumbled,” Wuh arr u duin wif mue fashe?”  His whiskers still provided her with excellent mobility as she continued to force him to make funny faces.

“I was getting bored, and you were still asleep… soooo, I decided to wake you up.” she replied

“So, er you gomma ret go now?”

“Nope” she fought back, “Not until you tell me why you are sleeping on the couch instead of in our bedroom, or even, “she fought off a shocked expression” your own room?”

“Awrite, awrite, but onry if you ret go” he reasoned

“Alright, you get it this once” she quietly stated, letting go of his whiskers but not getting off his chest.

Suddenly, Nick’s chest tightened, he felt like a lump was growing in his throat.  He wanted to tell her what was wrong, but he didn’t want her to feel bad about it. “Look, Judy… yesterday was really taxing for me, and I… I just needed a couple hours to sort myself back out, it was nothing” sensing that she would press the issue further, “I got back in late and I figured that you wouldn’t take kindly to being woken up at such a late hour.  It would have been too noisy to get to my room and I most definitely knew that I’d wake you by getting into our bed.” he placated

“Alright foxy, but that still doesn’t excuse you from not telling me that you were back.  I’m not worried for your safety, I _know_ you can take care of yourself; very much so, what I’m more worried about is here” dropping a meaningful paw down to his chest, “You get can get so distant, lock everything away, but you know it’s still there… you need to let someone in, you **_need_** to- for my sake and for your own.”

“But Judy-” he started flippantly

“No, I don’t want any of that macho bullshit.  I had Doc. Amherst explain what she thought happened yesterday to me, I know what you must have felt like afterwards… this isn’t something you can deal with on your own, you need to open up to me” before pressing herself into the crook of his neck and whispering into his metallic ears, “wear more than your heart on your sleeve”.  

In that instant, she backed off, leaping off her partner and off the worn sofa.  Now standing on the coffee table at the room’s center, she winked to him, “two halves of a whole, love, I’m to you as you are to me” before she hopped off towards the bathroom and the running shower within.

“This rabbit… my rabbit” stated Nick to himself as he roused from the couch, “Is going to be the death of me” before he started towards the kitchen.  

When Nick leaned to open the fridge to get fixings for breakfast, he noted the glow emanating from his left eye.  Focusing on it, he felt an internal shift along his spine as the light flickered back out.  ‘ _ Not today’ _ he thought to himself, blissfully forgetful of most of the previous night’s events back at his father’s old tailory.  Yelling out past the fridge’s open doors, “Hey, fluff, what do you say for a snack on the way out?” before he perked an ear in the direction of the bathroom.

The response was quiet, muffled by the sound of running water and the closed door, but Nick heard it all the same.  “Yeah! Food sounds great!” shouted the grey rabbit.

**One Hour Later, Judy** \--

Looking over to her partner, she noted that he was sitting back into their shared chair more than usual, he wasn’t lazily slouching like he usually did neither, instead he was sitting straight-backed into the chair and focusing forward.  “Sleep funny?” she asked, doing her best impression of the fox’s usually curved posture, “Y’know Slick… I think it might be working”

“Yeah, the couch was a lot less comfortable than I thought it would be,” before he paused to look over at her, “And what might I ask, is working?”

“I figured you were going to give in and finally start to fix that notoriously bad posture, it’s not good for your back Y’know” she furthered, using her paw to imitate a bent back, “Coz, if you’re not careful, you’ll end up like Uncle Tony… and let me tell you, Uncle Tony was bad.  Poor dope has to wear a brace now, a real steel one too, looks like some kind of medieval torture device.” Judy had taken to standing on the table, casting her shadow over her face to give it more of a horror story vibe when she levied it onto her foxy partner.

“Gonna have to try harder than that fluff” he retorted with a snort

“Oh really?” she exclaimed, “Then pray tell why you’ve suddenly decided to straighten out?”

“I told you. After breakfast, my back was really bothering me and… I’ll be honest” he leveled his muzzle with hers, “This is simply the most comfortable now” before he leaned back, “After the discomfort goes away, I  **_plan_ ** on going back to my slouchy posture from before” his final statement seeming more like a threatened joke that a kit would make on the playground.

“Oh, we’ll see ‘bout that Slick Nick!” she stated, steadfast in her belief before hopping from her perch on the chair and heading towards Chief Bogo to get their casework.  When Judy moved to take the folder from her paw, he didn’t immediately let go of it, “Officer Hopps, a word of you don’t mind?” he questioned.  Judy was far too smart to think of it as anything other than a demand.  Quickly motioning for her partner to meet her in their squad car, she turned back to face the Chief.

“What is it?” she asked, sounding less like the spunky bunny that she was known to be and more like a hardened mammal waiting the next barrage life had to send her way; ‘ _better tell Nick that he’s rubbing off on me_ ’ she thought with a huff, and doubly so when she realized that the Chief had also heard the change in tone.

“Hopps, I expect there to still be issues with Wilde, but if you need counseling and other support too we are here for you… you know, that right?” he stated in a rather shockingly parental fashion.

Unable to really understand how to immediately respond to the change in the Chief’s stony facade, the bull took the freed-up moment in the conversation to continue.  “I expect you to come directly to me if you have any sort of issues with either yourself or with Wilde” he parroted himself back to her.

“Bogo… what did you really bring me over here for? Because it most certainly wasn’t only to tell me that you are here” When the older mammal opened his mouth to give a retort, she continued with haste in order to cut him off, “I can see it in your face.  Something is bothering you, and by the looks of it, I should be too” she finished with far less depth in her tone than she intended, sounding more like someone conversing over a rather dark subject.

“You’ve never failed to see what others miss Hopps, this is no different.” shifting his stance, the massive buffalo looked down to the rabbit, wiping his face he continued, “I’m very concerned with Officer Wilde, Nick, I-” pausing for a second to think through his thoughts, “My senses are tingly on this one.  He might appear to be okay, outside and inside… but I fear that something is wrong that those agents aren’t telling us” stated the Chief as he made his way to a brief pause.

“What do you mean by that… I mean, he’s got that ‘Iron mammal’ facade going on.  You sure that you aren’t just finally able to see through it for once? Torture and kidnaps like this genuinely do affect people, some in different ways”

“Hopps, I  **_know_ ** that” stating it as if it were common knowledge, “There’s something wrong with Nick, and I’m not sure you can see it.  I won’t say that he can’t see it, but I heard and saw what happened at the ring yesterday.  What happened was incredibly unfortunate, but when he got up… was that really Nick doing it? Or was it something else?” insinuated the Chief

“No Chief… he thought that he needed to protect me, he even said that later.  What I’m more worried about is what happens to him if something really were to happen… I feel like, for as much as Nick trusts that Dr. Faye, there is something they are utterly failing to tell us.  Like that red glow in his eyes, hell, he just told me that his back is bothering him” she floundered, “I mean, can that even happen? Isn’t it metal like most of the rest of his skeleton?” she finished

“You said his back was bothering him?” asked Bogo, his focus no longer entirely on their conversation.

“Yea, why?” came her questioned reply

“Because I think that ‘something’ you referenced about Nick is happening now.  Interesting coincidence too” she furthered, “they show up just a couple months afterwards, Faye gets captured by a terror cell that nobody’s heard of here, yet, they are actively working in Zootopia? Color me with disbelief.” tugging her paw into one of her vest straps, she continued, “Sure what happened to Faye is horrible… but would it be such a stretch to say she knew all along how it would turn out?”

“Why would she have let it happen in an uncontrolled environment though? Wouldn’t she have rather gone through with it in a lab of some sort?”

“Hopps, I don’t know.  It could be everything or nothing, I sure as hell ain’t gonna ask.  I suggest you do the same” noting that she wanted to butt in, he continued in a low whisper, “If it is them, we can let them know we suspect a thing.”

“I’ll keep an eye out” she started, heading towards the door. “Wait, Chief… check with the Bureau.  Are they cleared to be active here, much less hunting a terror cell with help from untrained cops?” winking, “Just a thought y’know, don’t want to let someone know when laws are being broken or anything” she added, strolling through the threshold and towards the garage.

**Out On Patrol** \--

Both Nick and Judy sat together in the squad car, the normal banter had resumed.  Even though, Judy’s mind was still taxed by the crazy coincidences that were happening, ‘ _ surely there must be a reason for this… _ ’ she trailed to herself.  Suddenly, her mind kicked back into gear, “Hey Nick”

“Mmm?” he responded, watching the cars speed past on the highway

“How’s your back feeling? Any better?”

Nick then leaned forward in his seat, exposing the cushion behind him. And to Judy, it looked like the seat was wet; ’ _ with what though’ _ she thought quickly as her partner readjusted.

“Feels a bit stiffer than before, although the pain with movement is getting better.  Soon I’ll be back to slouching in no time!” he shot back with his usual snark and facade.  

But Judy could see right through it, he seemed rather unsure, scared even.  She couldn’t let him sit like this, and so, she acted.  Reaching a paw out to his own, “Nick” she stated with an air of finality, “We are going to be alright.  We are going to make it through this, and I will always be with you… you hear me? Always with you”

“Thanks Judy… you have no idea how much that means to m-” the mushy moment was cut infinitely too short as the radio blazed to life

“ **We’ve got a 10-2000 at 1821 on Pride-Rock Ave Savannah Central.  All officers near location advice 10-76”** shouted the dispatch.

“Shit Fluff, looks like we got to pack in the mushy for a moment. You ready?”

“Always” she replied, determined fire burning in her violet eyes

**Pride-Rock Ave** \--

“Right there Judy!” pointed Nick towards a nearby warehouse with two police vehicles already parked outside.

As the duo pulled up, they noted the distinct lack of mammals in the cars, or for that matter, their presence in the area.  Something was wrong, very wrong, but now wasn’t the time for specifics.

“ ** _GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!_** ” came a bloodcurdling scream from the warehouses interior.  Judy instantly tore off, her inner drive not allowing her to slow down in the slightest as she bolted towards the sound of the scream and away from the safety of their cars and the sureness of the radio.

Bending down, Nick spoke back into the radio, “Hello dispatch, we’ve got probably cause at 1821 Pride-Rock Ave.  There are two ZPD vehicles already at the scene, no officers outside, Officer Hopps in pursuit.  Preparing to follow with, just running it by you Claw!” and then proceeded to break four codes by simply dropping the radio and bolting in after his partner.

Yelling out, “Judy! Judy! Where are you, I’m coming to help!” as Nick breached through the still swinging open doors that his partner had just darted through.

The scene he came out to was a shock unto itself.  His partner was standing, hunched behind some crates, peering between them to get a better view of the mammals in the room.  Nadine Fangmeyer was sitting up against a nearby crate with a couple of visible cuts into her uniform.  Nick tried to reach out to Judy, but missed her shoulder by merely inches as she darted out to get to the injured officer, Nick could only watch as she helped the other officer back to the crates that she had been hiding behind earlier.

In the din, Nick’s enhanced senses could make out an approaching figure, likely coming to finish off the officer that was left bleeding.  Quickly, Nick spun on a paw, “Nadine, are you okay enough to move?”

“Y-yhes” she coughed out, the wound seemed very painful, but was only debilitating- not actually done to cause lasting harm.

Nick drew his pistol and fired at the figure that quickly dove for cover and began to fire back.  When Nick slipped back behind the cover with Judy, he looked like he had seen a ghost, “What is it? Nick?”

“There are like a ton of motherfuckers in here… we need to go, like right now” he stated, with no shortage of urgency.

Together they came up with a plan to get the three of them out of there, they would each individually take turns shooting back behind them to provide covering fire.  Nick was first to take the rounds, leaning back across the crate to fire off a full clip before turning back to take Fangmeyer from Judy’s grasp to continue their movement back out the door.

The whole world slowed when Nick looked back, he could actually make out the expression on the face of the squirrel as he aimed the small caliber pistol at his partner.  “JUUUDDYYY” he screamed, nearly letting Nadine fall into a heap on the floor.  Pouncing onto his partner, he grabbed hold of her bridal style, braving the sharp pains from rounds striking him.  Nick set her down next to Fangmeyer, who to that point, had been keeping pressure on her own wounds.

Nick pawed at Judy’s face with incredible softness as he struggled to keep his sanity, “J-Judy, are you able to walk? Are you okay until help arrives?”

With a look of sheer determination, she stated back to him, “Nothin’ we haven’t dealt with before Slick… I’ll be fine, small caliber anyways” Judy thought it would have made him calm down if he knew she was okay.  She was almost ten thousand percent wrong.

Nick’s left eye began to glow, then his right.  Turning to face her one last time, “Judy… get out, take Nadine with you…  **Don’t. Look. Back** ” and in that instant, the male fox left the two females to extract themselves through the open door only a couple feet away.  With Nick’s words, still fresh in her mind, both the rabbit and the tiger slumped onto the concrete siding near the front door.  Judy took out her medical kit and began to dress the tiger’s wounds, “These are claw marks” broadly stated Judy as she wrapped them up, “Probably Will leave a scar y’know” she quickly added.

“Here, let me take a look at this” stated the familiar tiger as she reached for the hem of the uniform the rabbit had been wearing. “Alright, here, let me take a look.” the wound wasn’t a through-and-through, grabbing the gauze and bandages, she began to apply pressure and wrap the wound.

“Wanna tell em something at dispatch?” asked Nadine

“Like what” replied the bunny

“Where the fuck that ambulance is” shouted the clearly enraged feline, “Fuckers should have been here by no-” her tirade was cut short by a metallic, screeching, yowl.  The nightmarish and hollow sound echoed off the warehouses nearby, giving it a much wider range.  As the two locked eyes, they both knew what had caused it.  

“Nick!” they both yelped in unison.

 


	8. Ichor of Life, Fuel of the Damned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the bloodiest and goriest chapter to date, unless Ney comes up with another picture that paints a more intense picture, this will be the most bloody, murder-party, slaughter-esc chapter. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> \-- Leroi

Both Judy and Nadine leaned back against the concrete, trying to catch their breath, desperately so.  Judy was the first to recover enough of her composure to reach for the only working radio in the pair.  Clenching her jaw in the face of the fluctuating pain she spoke, “We’ve got a 10-2000 at the Savannah Central warehouses, 1821 Pride-Rock Ave.  We need busses-” finished the rabbit, her composure falling away- leaving her out of breath once more as the pressure and pain from the wound caused her to clam up.

“- Bring Bogo, we’ve got a situation.  Two officers are down, I repeat we have two downed officers…” sobbing for only a second before the tiger steeled her nerves, “Their status is deceased” Finished Nadine, before she put a comparatively massive paw onto Judy’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.  “You’ll make it, and so will Nick”

        “You promise?” was Judy’s only reply

“The only mammal that could ever get rid of that slick fox is you Judy… Don’t ever forget that, he won’t leave you” before taking a quick breath, “Not now *eheh* Not ever” before she leaned back once more to try and retain her strength.

\-- **Inside the Warehouse** \--

Nick’s vision flaired with red streaks as he looked back out into the assembled mammals in the warehouse and each and every one of them had weapons trained at him.  Unfortunately, even with his highly-tuned senses turned up to eleven due to Judy’s injury he was unable to make the caliber of his small ZPD issue firearm any stronger.  His pistol would do serious damage to anyone his size while also being insanely deadly to any mammal smaller than him, the only issue was that the gang knew this too.  The smaller members had retreated behind the taller and heavier mammals, making Nick’s weapon almost completely useless unless he was going for disabling shots.

While this worked initially, it kept him far to occupied to notice the draft horse that had taken a separate strategy than his comrades.  With no need for weapons of any sort, the equine stood easily over twice Nick’s height, having absolutely no issue lifting the fox.  “MOTHERFUCKER!” screamed Nick as the floor suddenly ceased to be underpaw.

“Well ain’t you a piece of fukin’ work there boyo” spoke the horse, his accent not matching up with the area he worked in

Nick struggled savagely; attempting to swing his paws close enough to either smash in the horse’s muzzle or claw its eyes out.  The horse looked around for something to aid him, knowing well enough that the heft of the fox in his paws meant that he did not want to drop him onto a knee.  “Jus wait a second, I’ll get’cha situated” thundered the horse in a demeaning manner, “After you, we be goin’ afta yer friends outside~ Ah, there we go!” he continued.

Nick struggled for a single instant longer before he felt the hoofs lift him further up before they disappeared, Nick instantly tried to take advantage of the change in posture, only that wasn’t the equine’s plan.  Those gigantic hoofs quickly planted themselves onto the fox’s chest and put every ounce of strength behind it as he threw Nick into the steel support beam that he had searched for.

“RRRAAHHH~~” yelled Nick as he met eyes with his assailant, moments before his back met with the beam; driving every ounce of oxygen out of his lungs and shattering his spine into a thousand pieces.

        “Names’ Marty by the way” stated the equine to the broken mammal on the floor, “Jus figured you’d wanna know who killed yeh” as he started to step away.

‘Marty’ turned around the corner of the boxes that he and the fox had been behind, “Boys!” he yelled, “Got the little shit! He’s broke now” chuckling at his own intentional pun.  But in the background as the mammals started to grow complacent with the lack of active threats, Nick’s mind started to ebb back to his body.  But like before at his father’s old tailory, his emotions changed again, gone was the thought of ‘protecting’ and ‘serving’.   _‘These mammals tried to kill JUDY! They tried to kill me… Nadine had gotten injured, and those other officers he had yet to find’_ justified the fox internally, ‘ _they will PAY!’_.  With that, his body began to react to his deepest desires, his deepest wish- to kill every. Single. Mammal. In. The Warehouse.

Nick’s eyes started to glow again, not brightly, but bright enough to illuminate the girder that he had been hurled into.  His claws all retracted before shooting back out in a shower of sparks- sufficiently sharpened, and next to change was his spine.  A terrible pain tore through his back as his body began to react to his desires again, then came a relentless pressure as something snapped back together under his fur.  The pressure increased until his maw was reflexively clenched together without even a single thought, it increased until Nick’s vision tinted red and black at the edges before it washed away in a sudden rush of relief.  Unable to see the change, Nick was initially unsure of what to think about it until he felt something move both under his back and in his spine.  The feeling traveled all the way down his tail and then back up to the base of his skull before it stopped with that same snap sound and suddenly, as if by miracle, Nick stood back up.  Surveying the room once more, as if he didn’t, or care to, remember what had happened before, Nick advanced towards the horse that had made himself known as Marty.  “ **Hey…** **_Marty_ ** **…** ” scratched Nick.

Upon hearing his name, the massive equine turned on a hoof to face the source of inquiry, only to be met with a set of knives slipping straight into his throat. “Gglhchh” was all the horse could say as he fell to his knees in front of the blood-soaked fox, his eyes belaying over the metal spike-lined spine that now protruded partially from the fox’s back.

“ **Name’s Nick, by the way,** **_figured_ ** **you’d like to know who killed you** ” Nick parroted back, sounding like a scratchy recording more than a flesh and blood mammal.  The look of utter terror only lasted a moment longer before Nick tore the head off the towering mammal.  Holding it like a puppet, he turned to face the others before him, “ **Sure does seem like a lot of dead bodies amirite?** ” he asked the severed head with a horrible grin on his face, old tears still dripping down from his insane eyes.

Mimicking the horse to the best of his ability, “ **_Damn tootin’ yo, motherfuckers gon’ make a mess- BIATCH!_ ** ” as he flapped the mouth of the horse from within with a set of long, sharp claws.  This act sent at least three of the mammals hurtling towards the back exit of the warehouse proper, the rest cocked the actions of their firearms and turned to unload at the fox; who had already disappeared from his initial spot.

When they heard that haunting voice once more, it drew all eyes towards the only breaker box in the room as they watched the fox-cop poise his paw at the important source of electricity. “ **It’s too bright in here** ” stated the fox as he swiped through the box and sent the warehouse into a blackout.

\-- **Outside** \--

Both Judy and Nadine had been laid up against the wall for nearly ten minutes by the time sirens could be heard, not a minute later, the duo had a front row seat to several squad cars with a few ambulances dotted through the line of black and white vehicles.  “And it looks like the *hff* cavalry’s here” before putting her paws up in a sarcastic cheer, “yaaay” she finished with naught but mocked emotion.

“NOOOO” Protested Judy

        “Wait. What is it?” came the tiger’s reply

“Nick’s rubbing off on you too!” she finished with a smirk

        “My god.  He IS! Dear lord…” trailed the feline, now minorly lost in faux thought.

\-- **Inside** \--

In the shuddering darkness that enveloped the entirety of the work-floor where the mammals had congregated, Nick skated around like a demon; killing any and all that came within reach, not because he had seen them attack either him or Judy, rather, they were there when it happened and _didn’t do a thing to stop it_.  Insane, maniacal laughter spewed from his tear-streaked face as he broke those maddening moments to scream in rage when a mammal would skitter just out of his reach.  But soon it fell into a rhythm, they ran- and he chased.  

A stoat screaming in fear as he tried to make distance between him and this ‘monster’, had no chance as Nick hurtled forward, sinking his claws into the back of the mammal’s spine and tearing it out.  Nick then furthered to use the spine as a garrote to rip through another fox’s throat when it strayed too close in the darkness.  The fury that the lone fox possessed was unmatched by any of the other mammals in the room, or for that matter, ever before.  Nick struck down each and every mammal he could get his paws on be they large, small, or other.

With blood scenting the air, stronger now than the overwhelming stench of oil and machinery, Nick spied a large grizzly bear and instantly began taking strides towards the bear.  Fortunately for the grizzly, it’s eyes had adjusted enough to provide some sight in the din, furthering to allow it to catch Nick in the side with a strong swipe of a paw.  Nick’s body swayed at the sheer force behind the hit, but bounced back with double the force.  Spearing a full set of claws through the sinew and cartilage holding the limb at the elbow, Nick used the now severed arm to decimate the bear- leaving only a mashed pile of fur and broken bones to represent a once mighty force.

When Nick started to notice that the number of mammals had started dwindling faster and faster, leaving him with very few targets left to choose from, turning on a dime, he searched for the reason. “ **Opening the door, are we?** ” he questioned sardonically, ‘ _of course they would want to get away from me’_ he thought as he started to close the distance between the group of survivors and himself. He was in progress of putting them through a mammalian blender, who could blame them for being scared?

\-- **ZPD Officers, Outside** \--

“Chief Bogo!” coughed Judy “we’re over here!”

Within an instant, the two injured animals were being treated by the medics.  Judy had requested to stay and Officer Fangmeyer was already being transported to Grand Central Hospital.  With the officers creating a solid barrier between the warehouse and the city beyond, Chief Bogo turned back to Judy, “What’s going on here Hopps!”

“We were called in, dispatch told us we were needed to back up two squads already on scene~” she started before getting cut off

        “We’ve had no requests come through dispatch Hopps, are you sure it came through your radio?’

“Absolutely” she answered, not even a single blink had passed before she answered.  The request seemed legitimate enough for them to respond, and when they arrived, there were already squads on-sight.

        “Where is Officer Wilde?” hazarded the Buffalo

“H- ... “she started, pausing to think of a better way to say it, “He covered our escape when we got out of the building and he hasn’t- or isn’t able to get himself out” she answered, dodging the weight the question carried.

Bogo turned to ask the same question in a more pointed fashion only to get cut off by the sound of automatic gun shots before the staccato noise went completely silent, followed shortly by a terrible scream and something incredibly heavy slamming into one of the three main loading doors.  “Never mind Hopps, I know where Nick is” as he stepped back to his vehicle to retrieve a plus sized bullhorn.

        “OI!” he yelled, “FUCKBUCKETS! YOU HAVE TO THE COUNT OF TEN TO GET YOUR SORRY ASSES OUT OF THAT FUCKING BUILDING, RIGHT. THE. FUCK. **NOW!** ” before he flattened the horn into the hood of his car

Not an instant later, the furthest sheet-metal door flew open with insane speed; being propelled by a rhino that was actively shoving mammals out of the dark interior of the warehouse and out into the light.  The rhino was quickly replaced by a large tiger when it bent down to heft a pair of injured mammals.

Gasping in shock, Bogo paled when the wounds that some of the mammal’s carried became visible.  It looked like they had gone through hell, but it wasn’t yet done with them.

\-- **Nick** \--

When the neigh blinding light from the now open door subsided into only a minor throb instead of a debilitating burn, he acted.  Hoping to have struck low at the rhino to have taken out a leg, Nick was instead surprised instead when he smashed into the chest of a tiger, sending both mammals sprawling across the ground and into the light.  

When Nick stopped rolling, he sprung back to his paws, only the large claws and paw pads making contact with the ground- giving him both a highly-increased penchant for movement and a higher angle at which to strike down on.  This new height advantage put him nearly on par with the slightly slouchy tiger. Whom looked at the bloody, steel meshed fox before him and screamed, “Eres el diablo!” as he unsheathed a twin pair of knives from his hip.

Nick paused for a moment when he heard this, before breaking into manic laughter, “ **I am no devil… just a broken mammal made whole** ” before looking down at his claws, they dripped all sorts of blood.  Just pouring away as he stood there, some was his, but most was ‘donated’ from others that he had encountered in the darkness.

The instant Nick straightened back out, his movements accentuated by a slight tap sound from his back spikes straightening back out to give him further protection, the two mammals collided together in a shower of sparks.  Nick’s right paw glanced off one of the blades that the tiger held, before the fox pivoted on a set of claws- retracting the claws on his off paw back in, and using it to deliver a crushing blow to the tiger.  Who managed to get a couple slices in of his own, but when the two separated, the tiger quickly noticed that some of the blood that had been dripping off the fox was instead absorbed through the wound, sealing it back up until it was fresh and furred like normal.  At this, he understood he could not win,” You refuse to die yet you claim you are no diablo?” coughed the tiger, “Do not fool yourself muchacho, you could easily play the part”

“ **Hmm** ” was all Nick replied with as he leapt forward once more.  A flurry of swipes was his retort to the tiger's words, the wheezing feline was only able to defend for a couple more strikes before he was caught in the chest by a single claw; the claw punctured the feline's right lung and sliced through a couple ribs, only to be torn out and placed at the maw of the animal.  Where Nick used it and his other to tear the orange mammal's jaw open, killing it instantly.

As Nick stood over the lifeless body in a moment of silence for the only mammal that had the heart, or had it, to stand up against him and square off with little care for the outcome.  A shadow loomed over him for merely an instant before a heavy paw collided with him, sending the fox careening through the air where he smashed into one of the assembled cruisers with enough force to slam through the windshield entirely.

Shaking his muzzle, Nick found his bearings, the officer that had been occupying the door as cover quickly leapt away as the fox stepped out of the cruiser- stopping only to tear the door of the hinges before he quickly padded back to the elephant that was brushing aside the loading bay door.

As Nick passed the handful of officers that stood nearby as he trekked back towards the elephant, hefting the door up onto his shoulder like a shield, Nick leaned into a low fighting stance and growled at the megafauna mammal. Who charged into a low sweep, trying to knock Nick’s legs out from underneath him.  Nick was quick to capitalize on this, springing up only to turn around and slice down and through the tendons connecting the heavy limb to the muscles that drove it.  With the elephant’s movement hampered, Nick skated past the second swipe in a shower of sparks as he sprung sideways and slashed deep into the large mammal’s hide, using his claws to spring him further up so that he could use the door as a club.  Smashing it into the skull of his enemy repeatedly until the larger mammal fell to the floor with a solid thud.

Nick was about to continue smashing away, but a heavenly sound drew him from his frenzy. “NICK!” the scream came from his partner.  The sheer emotion carried in the single yell was enough to freeze him in place, Nick dropped the door and focused over towards where he heard the voice.  ‘ _Judy…’_ was the only thought to pass through his hazy mind.


	9. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally another chapter, I had been hoping that my turn around time from when Ney posted her pictures, but life has worked in some rather dexterous ways to afford me as little time as possible.
> 
> As per usually, Find Ney's pictures here: http://neytirix.deviantart.com/gallery/59685700/Zootopia-Fanart
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you've enjoyed.

 

\--  **Judy** \--

As soon as Judy and Fangmeyer limped past the now ever-increasing wall of ZPD blues covering up the front of the warehouse, Judy caught a passing glimpse of a red streak as it shuffled through towards several others before it stopped next to a grey heap on the ground.  ‘ _ W-what? What is that!?’ _ her mind still slowed from her injury and blood loss, rooting her to the spot for an instant before it crashed down like a house of cards.  “NIICK!!” she screamed, hobbling away from the much needed medical attention as she headed towards her partner- who in his frenzy- paused for an instant to survey the surrounding faces to catch a read on her voice.

Before she could utter another breath or even take another step, she stumbled to the ground where she was swiftly caught by a large pair of tan furred paws- each easily able to fully encircle her entire body- lifted her swiftly before she was clutched to a soft and far too soft chest for it to have been any other on duty officer she could have imagined.  Taking a chance, “Clawhouser?” pausing to take a shaky breath, “Is that you?” the pregnant pause that hung low and dangerous in the heated air was deafening before the figure spoke up.

“Shh, Judy, you need to save your strength.  You’ve been hurt pretty bad, but I’m sure they can help you” the clear worry on his face took her by surprise, it wasn’t the normal look of contentment nor was it the euphoric state he was known for during a sugar rush.  Instead it was a grim and determined frown that had etched itself through his fluffed features, an expression older than his plaque on the front desk.  Judy tried to formulate a response, but it was lost in her throat when she suddenly found herself devoid of strength- all of her adrenaline having been burnt through.

“Don’t try and push it, it’s okay” he consoled, his paws taking them as fast as possible towards the nearby flashing lights.  Judy attempted to count the flashing lights, a fool's’ errand in a vain attempt to gauge the damages of what had transpired.  Soon enough, she found herself laid out on a gurney in the back of a large red and white ambulance.

With a slightly dopey smile from the partial sedative, Judy was able to fully move again- the pain no longer all-encompassing.  “How bad is it?” she queried, hoping for the best.

“Well” started the badger, “Any closer to the left would have caused the round to strike your spine between the T8 and T10 vertebrae” pausing for a moment to rethink her next statement,” any closer to the right and you  would have been trying to make sure your insides don’t become ‘outsides’” before she turned around to grab the final parts of the dressing. 

\--  **Nick** \--

The fox scanned through the amassment of bodies, officers and wrecked equipment looking for only one thing- _Judy.  ‘I know I just heard her…’_ his waking mind thought, still trapped into the bloodlust from before.  As the police barricade closed in, Nick’s attention turned back to the semi-conscious elephant at his feet and gave a manic grin. ‘ _Almost done’_ as he leapt off of the megafauna mammal- car door still in paw, he slammed back down and buried it deep into the back of the creature’s skull.  The spray of blood and viscera was lost on Nick’s already bloody coat, only adding to the nightmarish display, without Judy becoming visible, Nick’s total lack of emotive ability beyond that of retribution brought him to once again move forward towards the few remaining mammals that had still yet to get beyond the police line- one that was swiftly closing in, trapping them in with Nick.  

His crimson orbs and nightmare grin gave nothing away as the fox came up behind the last remaining gangsters- a stoat and an arctic fox.  The stoat, in a moment of foresight, spun around to face the fox before he was hurled backwards into the concrete wall of the warehouse.  Upon hearing the sound of the only other mammal get launched away with little more than a short gasp, the arctic fox stopped slamming his paws into the surrounding riot shields.  They had been opening, a vain attempt at best, to save at least some more of the lives at stake.  But when Nick came into reach, the officers stacked back up, slamming the wall back into place.  “Don’t let him through. We can’t risk it!” yelled Bogo, trying to wait out the clock so the Bureau agents could arrive. “We can’t risk him getting out!”

\--  **Judy** \--

“Alright, this patch should hold for now” stated the badger as she stripped the latex gloves from her paws, “Please try not to move too much, you’ve lost nearly too much blood and reopening it could be deadly.” 

With worry written plainly on her face, “Look!” yelled Judy, “That antelope is badly injured!” when the medic failed to turn around immediately, instead affixing her with a lackluster stare of disappointment.  “Oh my god! Jimmy!” she screamed, “Stay with us”, faux tears formed at the edges of her eyes as she watched the imaginary mammal struggle for breath.  With that, the technician spun on a heel instantly, giving her just enough time to whisper a croaked “sorry” as she stumbled out of the back of the ambulance, leaving the EMT to yell after her as she stumbled through the wall of ZPD mammals and riot gear. “NICK!” she screamed, hoping to elicit some form of response- some way to find him in this miasma.

Judy’s attempt to get to her partner were stalled as soon as she reached a vantage point through the assembled shields.  The Nick she knew was entirely absent from the scene before her, it was obvious, he had completely lost it.  Nick’s facade was the epitome of wrath and rage, twisted into a snarl that refused to budge from his usually friendly features.  His sharp claws were screaming down towards an already blood soaked fox- his fur once a pristine and glistening white, now plastered down with a visceral mixture of blood and minced flesh.  Without even taking a second thought, she tore one of the comparatively massive tranq darts from Wolford’s drooping bandolier, steeling herself once more, she began to sloppily limp her way through the forest of legs and towards a miniscule opening in the shield wall.  Tears streamed down her face, Nick obviously couldn’t help himself. ‘ _ I’m so sorry~’ _ gripping the body of the dart with ruthless determination.

After passing through the wall of officers and into the small clearing, one that was quickly becoming smaller, “Nick!” tears blurred her vision and drove her onward, “Nick, you need to stop. It’s over, they’re already gone!” she wept, the fox’s soaked hide and his now spine-covered back coming into full view.

\-- **Nick** \--  

With the body of the arctic fox limp as his feet, Nick turned once more to find the stoat he had hurled away.  The instant Nick found the struggling stoat, he heard Judy’s voice once more and found himself compelled to find her. ‘ _ Again? _ ’ he wondered, small flecks of rage dotting his vision as he feared he would look back and not find her again. Only this time, she was nary a few steps away, staring at him with a frightening mix of horror and sorrow.  His body ached in many places, but everything still felt fine for the most part- and the kink that had plagued his back since morning roll call had finally found it’s way out after he had found himself at odds with a rather tough piece of steel.  His heightened attentiveness caused him to instantly rivet to a familiar grey bunny that usually stood well above his waist, but as Nick’s crimson gaze shuffled down her form, her right paw was clutched around a swath of bandage that surely covered the bullet wound from earlier- causing her to bend slightly to move without putting strain on the injured area.  Her off paw had something with an interesting gleam hidden in it, but Nick couldn’t find it within himself to care.  She was alright, and that was all that mattered- that, and making sure that the mammals responsible for her current state paid in blood.

With a shuddered step, his still healing body stepped forward towards the weasel that lay prone on the concrete- clutching it’s arm at the elbow where it had been bent the wrong way when he collided with the brick siding of the warehouse.  Nary a moment later, Nick felt a familiar grip on his side- knowing it was Judy, he felt even more justified to move forward to take care of this nuisance once and for all.  

With Judy in tow, Nick attempted to take a couple more steps, with a sharp pressure in his back, it suddenly became hard to breathe and an intense pain continued to mount under his left shoulder.  This, matched with the loss of the paw on his side left him with only one thought ‘ _ JUDY!’ _ he spun around, swinging one of his clawed paws towards where he thought the mammal that had attacked would be.  Whatever had struck him hampered his mobility, his paw losing nearly all of it’s dexterity as it swung into the figure directly behind him. Sending them sprawling backwards.

With his vision swimming, and blackness nipping at the corners of his mind, Nick squinted at the figure, what he saw shook him to the core, “J-judy?~” he slurred out, all of the pain flashing back through his now loose mind- vivid memories cementing themselves behind his eyes as he began to drop. Falling first to his knees before stuttering once more, as he slipped out- “H-hulp meyyy~” and like a light, the consciousness sapped out of his eyes.  With an equal parts sad and determined hobble, Judy snapped up to her feet and rushed in close to her partner.  His spine making clicking noises as the armored plates shifted to allow him to slide down to the ground, giving her just enough time to close the distance- but not enough to plan out a manner to catch the fox.  Instead Judy let the limp figure slump down until his entire head rested on her right shoulder, strained by both the weight and her injury, she was forced to send a foot backwards to brace them as he continued deeper into unconsciousness. 

“Somebody, Get us a doctor!” yelled Judy, covering the unconscious fox’s closest ear with a paw as she yelled louder and louder.


	10. Free Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The still-continuing continuation of a continued story that I do hope to continue. If I haven't used the word continue enough here, I will also be looking over the continuity and polishing the previous chapters soon. Again, if you'd like to see more of Neytirix's work, the link will be below. She is the owner of all of these wonderful pictures and Disney still owns all things. Enjoy, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to leave a comment below.
> 
> https://neytirix.deviantart.com/

**_ _ **

**_BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ_ **

The fluorescent bulbs glowed harshly through their cages in the ceiling, the stark blanched light only flooded the padded room with a scorching and pale light.  The fox, long since crumpled into the corner of the heavily padded room, chuffing lightly in docile contentment.  Nick had been roughly slung into the chamber what felt like an eternity ago, he relented easily, allowing them to force his limp form into a straightjacket; tensing minutely when a long needle pressed into his back.  Since that moment, everything sloughed past in seas of molasses.  Several pale-coated mammals came in, poking and prodding him with a multitude of different medical tools; some seemed like they should have hurt, or at least definitely looked as though they did.

Every time Nick attempted to look around, his eyes would shift before his head; almost as if it were being held in place by something.  With a harsh click, nearly shuddering the fox from his drugged-out dreamscape, a pair of doctors entered in.

“You think he really did it?” asked the one on the left, crouching down to open one of the fox’s eyes; checking it with a pen-light.

“Are you kidding Neilson? They’ve got the recording in the other room~” the second one trailed, obviously not whomever this ‘Neilson’ was.

“No man, do you think he wanted it? He looked so completely gone in that video… he needs some fucking help and I don’t know if we can provide it” answered the crouched doctor.

Nick’s ears twitched at the sound of the two mammals talking so close to him while he lay there, his muscles clenched as he tried to communicate. “Rahm ahnt amros” he gibbered, steel cage keeping his mouth jammed shut.  The crouched doctor put his pen light away quickly, knowing the fox was far too drugged out to possibly even move; it was a miracle he could even think much less perform this garbled speech.  

Neilson turned to his partner, “We should go, his condition hasn’t changed” he stepped to the door quickly and professionally, his partner less so.  Though, he too left after only a couple extended moments of staring down at the broken, drugged-out creature at his feet.  With the two gone, Nick’s faulty muscles failed him again, sending his head lolling back to the side where it hung limply; a single strand of drool sliding out of his slightly parted maw.

* * *

**_Judy, Outside_ **

Ever since she’d stabbed him with the dart, her fox had been drugged, she’d managed to find time every day to show up after her shift to check on his condition.  Judy had noted that two of the doctors would walk in and do a handful of tests before they would unceremoniously leave without so much as giving the fox another injection of heavy sedatives.  Seeing him this way hurt on something more than a physical level, he was so strong of will to have survived so much and have simply even had the will to take another step; much less live another day.  But here he stood, having not gotten the help he needed because  **_they_ ** , because  **_she_ ** was too blind to his suffering.  The fox had been kidnapped, drugged and tortured. “ _ It was weird” _ she thought, “ _ Why would he have not gotten any special treatments…” _ it was weird, the whole situation seemed off.  The lapine officer couldn’t help but attempt to rationalize it verbally, “Perhaps someone wanted this?” her muttering drowned out the sound of another pair of footsteps closing in on her.

“Ma’am” came a lazy and disinterested voice, the figure’s interest caused Judy to spin promptly.

“Yeah?” she asked, briefly taking a moment to look at her watch, “Time to go already?”

The towering elk looked down at the small rabbit with a mixture of apprehension and sadness, “Yeah, it’s time to go…” the nurse looked through the viewing window with an expression of pure pity, “It really is a shame… a damn bad one at that”

“Oh?” prodded the grey rabbit, “What about it?” she had intended her statement to be more casual and friendly and not as angry and judging as she knew she sounded.

The elk snapped her gaze to the officer, pinning her with a subdued gaze; rage hidden deep by practice. “It’s a **_damn_** shame that they didn’t give him the help he needed. **_We_** don’t know what’s wrong with him, we don’t know what whoever did this **_did_** to him, **aannd** , we have clue how to fix this” the elk’s docile visage twisted in anger, “The last thing he needs is more mammals treating him like he can even control what he’s doing, or even thinking! For that matter…” her tirade paused for a second, “He might have been under whatever affects caused him to **Participate** in this rampage the **_whole time_** ” Judy blanched at the change in demeanor, freezing in place as the practitioner stepped away with light clops from her hooved feet.  Even though she froze to the spot, Judy’s mind razed through what she knew about what happened to Nick.  Her mind continually waltzed to her notes, the board she had drawn up with all of her connected information about those who were connected to the incident; only one thing didn’t add up.  “ _The agents…”_ they were displaced, having shown up almost perfectly in time for everything to go to hell.  Judy raced from the building, purpose in mind.

* * *

**_Location Unknown_ **

“How soon can we put everything into motion?” 

“I’d say soon, we’ve waited long enough for this time-bomb to go off”

“So you keep saying, but what of the bystanders? Onlookers? Heck, the transport… you sure you have everything thought out?” an understanding, but clearly distraught expression.

A bitter laugh echoed in the dull light, “Stripes, I’ve always got everything all thought out”

“And what about them? You can’t honestly think they’ll come on willingly? Not after all of this  **_nonsense_ ** ” a glass being placed down, devoid of content, ringing out in the din.

“Buddy, as far as the law stands; much less us and ours, they have **_no_** other options”

“So when then, if at all?”

“Big Chief will get those transfer papers six days after the hearing, she’ll probably get them on the seventh, and it would appear our painting is coming together”

* * *

**_Nick, Day of Trial_ **

The fox shuddered for a couple moments, the strange floating feeling he’d been riding for the better part of his current memory was slowly starting to fade and his vision was slowly coming to a stop; it'd been nauseating as the drugs started to wear off, while Nick had never done drugs before, he certainly knew what one could expect from being drugged, though the ramifications between the two were strikingly different.

“ _ Rugs to rags to riches” _ his thoughts turned bitter, “ _ to bloody padded cells” _ his vision was finally clearing enough for him to make out his surroundings. Nick knew something was up; they’d given him different medication and he was clearly no longer drugged to the edge of sanity. The fox attempted to shift his muzzle for a second, only to find that it was firmly clamped shut, his heart rate skyrocketed for several solid seconds, a dull beep turning into a firestorm as his beats per minute turned into beats per second.

His manic shuffling in his restraints in the time it took his mechanical side to quell his frantic and scared heart gave him enough pause for a week. His arms were jacketed into thick sleeves across his front and even though they were steel through-and-through, he could tell from tactile feedback that his feet were similarly bound. The fox panted in the silent light for a couple more moments before he closed his eyes, knocking his head back against the padding for a second as he racked his mind for whatever could have resulted in this situation.

“ _**H-help Me** ” _

The cry sounded somewhere in his skull, a flash of light, the patter of light raindrops; the  **_decadent_ ** feeling of blood pouring off of his sharp claws, the firm resistance of bone against his movements felt right when he swung out.

“ _**N-Nick, NO!** ” _

The snap difference was striking, he could see her, standing, covered in the blood dripping off of his form with every weak shuffle. His rage still reverberating in his possessed bones, the sight of her shocked him though; straight to the very core of his being. The sight of her, that little snippet he caught before the world turned into a haze of whacked rainbows and fountains of blood and bone, that single tear streaming down her face.

“ _**Get Help!** ” _

Nick didn’t notice as blue-clad mammals solemnly stepped into the room with him, completely unfocused eyes stared onwards as the chains holding him to the wall were removed; replaced buy multiple burly paws and heavier chains that seemed to drag him forward through the dim and unfamiliar hallways. The scent of the city, it’s thrumming energy too failed to rouse the fox from his stupor. Nick’s glossy eyes watched the scenery of sad faces cross by the window as the plated van came to a slow stop before a familiar marble facade, nor did they focus when the wooden stands of the jury became visible- their sad glares of pained understanding too were met with dead and broken eyes. Nick’s dead eyes focused onto the gazelle, once sitting in the esteemed judge’s seat; now standing instead, with a pair of matching tears pulling down her cheeks.

“ **_Somebody!_ _Anybody_ ** _**!** ” _

“ _ I regretfully must level judgement upon you Nicholas Piberius Wilde, charged against fifteen accounts of brutal assault and mammalslaughter, fifteen accounts of assault with a deadly weapon”  _  she looked downwards to the desk for a hinted moment, “All in the second degree _ ” _ she paused again to bring her glasses upwards to her brow. “ _ Though it pains me, I cannot level punishment for a creature  _ **_not_ ** _ in control of themselves, it is clear to me that you are no longer capable of controlling yourself.” _

The gazelle leaned backwards, addressing the entire room with a statutory glare; resting solemnly first on Judy before heating back up as it reached Chief Bogo, “ _ I hereby charge Precinct one with Gross Negligence in regards to both public safety and that of their officers and will personally sign all warrants relating to inspection of any involvement _ . _ Nicholas P. Wilde, I hereby recognize your insanity in this court of law and admit you to Front-Brooke Penitentiary _ ” the gavel fell four times before either the rabbit or the fox could react. Nick’s gaze came alive for the first time in almost a week when it rested on his once-partner, a silent frown caught on her muzzle as the same officers that brought him in took him back through the doors.

 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of now, I'll be heading back to the start of the story to get some much needed edits into places where my writing does not meet the quality that I desire. Thank you to all who've stuck with this story for so long, I promise that it will finish; sooner rather than later.


	11. Notice to all

Hello all;

This is a notice to all readers, this story is a large work-in-progress for me and I've recently found myself reading through most of the early chapters with a severe distaste for my initial writing method and have chosen to go through with my plan to fix the previous chapters to ensure they meet my desired quality. I'd like to thank all of you who've kept reading through the long droughts in this project, and will endeavor to work into the next chapters as well to keep the story moving forward. However, I can say that they will come somewhat slowly as the story's continuity goes through a surgery and augmentation of it's own. Again, thank you for reading.

 

 

Chapter 1 -- Edited and republished

Chapter 2 -- Edited and republished

Chapter 3 -- Edited and republished

Chapter 4 -- Edited and republished

Chapter 5 -- Edited and republished

Chapter 6 -- Edited and republished

Chapter 7 -- Edits Started

Chapter 8 -- Starting Soon

Chapter 9 -- Not yet begun

Chapter 10 -- To be determined

\-- Leroi


End file.
